It was awesome to see almost 50 people pack into the DC jQuery meetup at Fathom Gallery last week with six packs in hand to talk about Node.js. The conversation ranged from the classic make your hello world Node.js server by Jonathan Altman, to Jeff sharing some Node.js sites we have in production like PakistanSurvey.org and MapBox.com, to Will demoing tools we’ve built on Node.js like TileMill and TileStream. A big hat tip to Greg Lavallee, the organizer of the DC jQuery meetup, for organizing a great event that really showed how much energy there is in Washington, DC around Node.js.

This raises the question, should we start having a dedicated Node.js monthly meetup? Would folks and shops in town be interested in this? We are excited about the idea with all our development now on Node.js and, after more than half our team attended the first ever NodeConf yesterday in Portland, we are fired up. We would love to play a leadership role in organizing these (read finding a bar to meet in) if folks are interested in starting them.

If you’re in Washington, DC and would be interested in Node.js meetups, please let us know! I’m looking forward to hearing people’s feedback and ideas for starting these.