Meetup is an online social networking portal that facilitates offline group meetings in various localities around the world. Meetup allows members to find and join groups unified by a common interest, such as politics, books, games, movies, health, pets, careers or hobbies. Users enter their ZIP code or their city and the topic they want to meet about, and the website helps them arrange a place and time to meet. Topic listings are also available for users who only enter a location. The attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, was pivotal to the formation of this social network. Meetup co-founder Scott Heiferman publicly stated that the manner in which people in New York came together in the aftermath of that traumatic event inspired him to use the Internet to make it easier for people to connect with strangers in their community.

See also

• Federated Media's BigTent Groups
• Google Groups
  Google Groups
  Google Groups is a service from Google Inc. that supports discussion groups, including many Usenet newsgroups, based on common interests. The service was started in 1995 as Deja News, and was transitioned to Google Groups after a February 2001 buyout....
  
  
• GroupSpaces
  GroupSpaces
  GroupSpaces is a London-based online company that provides technology to help real-world clubs, societies, associations and other groups manage their membership and activities, and promote themselves online...
  
  
• Ning (website)
• SocialGO
  SocialGO
  SocialGO is a British company producing a social network builder that allows users to build an online community for a group, business or interest. Founded in June 2007, SocialGO was co-founded by Alex Halliday, Steve Hardman, and Dominic Wheatley...
  
  
• Wall.fm
  Wall.fm
  Wall.fm is an online service for people to build and host social networks, which is powered by Oxwall software. Wall.fm allows users over 18 years old to register a free account and create custom social networking websites...
  
  
• Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware
• Yahoo! Groups
  Yahoo! Groups
  Yahoo! Groups is one of the world’s largest collections of online discussion boards. The term Groups refers to Internet communication which is a hybrid between an electronic mailing list and a threaded Internet forum, in other words, Group messages can be read and posted by e-mail or on the Group's...
  
  
• Virtual community
  Virtual community
  A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals...
  
  

External links

• Jim Cashel, "Interview with Scott Heiferman, MEETUP," Online Community Report, August 2002.
• Debera Carlton Harrell, "Meetup.com Links Together the Like-minded," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 8, 2003.
• Chris Gray, "MeetUp.com Working to Become a Force in Politics," Knight Ridder, February 8, 2004.
• Nathan Kaiser, "Interview with Scott Heiferman," nPost, April 20, 2004.
• "Video with Interview with Meetup Founder & CEO Scott Heiferman" , explaining Meetup.com´s mission - The Meetup Organizer Boot Camp, June 10th 2009