This document summarizes a meetup about using Socket.IO for real-time applications. It discusses limitations of traditional HTTP requests/responses for real-time applications and solutions like long polling, streaming, and websockets. It notes that websockets are ideal but have limitations for older proxies and firewalls. Socket.IO provides an abstraction layer to use the best transport, including websockets, long polling, and streaming. The meetup will demonstrate Socket.IO through examples and code.