I was referred to a new social networking community through a friend called “Meetup.” Meetup describes itself as a service that “helps people find others who share their interest or cause, and form lasting, influential, local community groups that regularly meet face-to-face. We believe that the world will be a better place when everyone has access to a people-powered local Meetup Group. That’s our goal.”

I was delighted to see that within the Meetup community there were small self-coalescing groups of people who shared a common passion for science. Even further, I found that there were nine people near me who would be interested in learning about a “Meetup” group that shared an appreciation of science and another group that had aggregated around interests in ecology. I am excited to see what these folks are up to and whether they will be interested in working with me on new outreach programs in my community… maybe to help organize Science Café’s or Festivals in 2009? Does anyone have any experiences with Meetup that they can share?