eBay chairman joins meetings site board

Meetup said Monday that Pierre Omidyar, eBay founder and chairman, has joined the company's board of directors and has purchased an undisclosed stake in the company. Meetup helps organize face-to-face events for politicians and others, and counts presidential hopeful Howard Dean among its clients. Community building is currently a hot category among venture capitalists who have been recently funding companies such as Friendster that use the Internet to provide introductions.

"Meetup is using the Internet for something that couldn't exist before, while taking the application of the Internet a significant leap forward," Omidyar said in a statement.