Harvard University professor Robert Putnam’s book ‘Bowling Alone’ (a commentary on the decay of community in of modern society) inspired Meetup.com, a site that now boasts almost 700,000 members worldwide. The site, launched in June 2002, to stimulate local communities and encourage the creation of various interest groups, now hosts more than 2,100 topics. Meet-ups occur in more than 590 cities in 44 countries.
To use the site, members simply search for any topic of their choice, see when and where the next ‘meet-up’ will be held, and attend the meet-up at popular locations like Boston’s Starbucks, Trident Booksellers and Café and Tealuxe.
Currently, the most popular Meetup.com group is ‘Howard Dean in 2004,’ which has almost 120,000 members. Other top topics are ‘Dashboard Confessional,’ where the band’s enthusiasts can meet and talk about new songs or the latest show, ‘Live Journal,’ where blog users can share tips, and ‘Newly Single,’ where dating hopefuls could meet their future mates.
‘The Dean campaign has used Meetup.com as a tool to organize thousands of volunteers,’ said Andrew Koneschusky, a Dean campaign spokesman.
One meet-up fan, College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Jake Lambert, is a member of the Boston University for Dean club. He has attended several Howard Dean meet-ups since April. Lambert said he has enjoyed meeting fellow Dean supporters in a casual setting.
‘Sometimes the Dean campaign office sends down things to do, but mostly it’s just a good place to chat with other Dean supporters,’ Lambert said.
College students who come to Boston without knowing anyone can use Meetup.com to find people with interests similar to their own. Second-year Harvard Law student Dana Lossia said she used Meetup.com to meet people who liked the kind of food she did.
‘When I came to Boston last year I wanted to meet other vegans,’ she said. ‘So I typed ‘Boston vegans’ into Google and found Meetup.com.’
The vegan meet-up she attended at Veggie Planet in Cambridge last Saturday was Lossia’s third this year.
Once approved by the webmasters, a topic is given an individual URL through Meetup.com. The Harry Potter interest group, for example, can be found at http://harrypotter.meetup.com/. At this URL, one may find a description of the group’s purpose, how many members it has and information about its next meeting. Users also have the ability to view pictures and profiles of members who have chosen to post them.
Meetup.com is free for all standard users. There is also an option to upgrade to a premium membership for $3 per month. Premium membership allows users to post pictures, comments and suggestions on the website, edit the agenda and be contacted directly through the site. Because Meetup.com is funded primarily through these membership dues and through local venues that pay to be listed, it has no advertisements.