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NEW YORK — The first Tuesday of every month, Elvis fans are likely to be gathering near you. So are crochet lovers, people who want to practice speaking Portuguese and adherents of conservative politics. And they all get there by one means: the Internet. It's the latest trend in cyberspace -- so-called social networking. Millions of Internet surfers are finding like-minded people online, on sites like and, then leaving their computers to get together in the real world. 'One criticism of the Internet has been that it discouraged social interaction,' said Duncan Watts, an associate professor of sociology at Columbia University and the author of 'Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age.' 'That's oversimplifying it.' Watts said better technology, such as the ability to connect faster and upload pictures, has led people to connect in cyberspace and in person. launched in June 2002, but it wasn’t until Howard Dean supporters started 'Meetups' around the country last summer that the site's purpose of uniting people with shared interests caught on. Today, the site boasts more than one million members in 476 cities across the nation. There are Meetups for just about every interest imaginable, including African Violet enthusiasts, Chihuahua lovers, people who enjoy making scrapbooks, flashlight aficionados, World War II history buffs, wine lovers and supporters of political candidates, the most common subject of Meetups. The Dean Meetups make for the largest group, with 189,200 members. However, the size of a Meetup's membership isn't an indication of voter support: Democratic front-runner John Kerry's Meetups have drawn just 39,300 members. Recently, political conservatives have also begun tapping into, gathering for the first time in spontaneous groups in December. Before Meetup, many Republican supporters connected through, a conservative news site created by the Heritage F
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