Meetings used to be very popular in Victorian times and even before that, when certain women used to get together to get their embroidering on, or when whatever other different social activities required sex biased separating of individuals. Later, they became more cultural and turned into "literary soirees" or "musicals", but the fact is that groups of people, having similar characteristics and/or similar tastes, got together and honed their talents.

This is what Google is trying to pull on right now, a quick get together set up, addressed to those interested in code and coding. The invitation and the explanation for the term in the title were presented by Stephanie Liu, from the Google Data APIs Team: " 'What is an Ideathon', you may ask? I like to think of it as part hackathon, part unconference, part user group, part great food and fabulous prizes. Whatever it is, we're throwing one in a few weeks because we'd love to meet local developers - whether you've worked with one of the Google Data APIs in the past, or if you just want to learn more about it. We're opening our doors at the Googleplex (Mountain View, CA) Thursday, December 13th, 5:00pm-10:30pm to anyone who wants to spend their Thursday night hanging out with the Google Data team."

Nothing will be compulsory except for the short kick-off session. Google will provide the wi-fi, the power and the food, while the rest will be up to the attendees, be it that they use the time for picking the brain of someone on the Google Data team, meeting other local developers, sitting in on impromptu sessions going on or holding their own lightning talk about their personal projects.

For an event this well organized and thought of, it's surprising that the webpage they provided for RSVP and additional data doesn't work; but, not even Google's perfect! Several of these Ideathons will be held throughout the US and everybody is welcome to join or even host them.