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Cybercafes: Coffee, Friends and Connections

© Katherine Austinson

Stopping at the corner café is something you do every day. Some of your best friends meet you there for coffee. Well, you are apart of large group of people that gather at their corner coffee shop. In fact, it's been going on for years all across the world. Cafés became popular in the early 1900's in Vienna, Paris and Berlin. Artists and intellectuals such as Picasso or Sartre even published their manifestos from their favorite cafés. And they are still places for people to read the newspapers, meet their friends and discuss the events of the day.

But today, people communicate with their computers from their offices, or from their own homes. In the same way, artists, musicians and writers have begun using computers to collaborate and exhibit their work in a new forum.

So... why not work together in a place where you can have computer access and a great cup of coffee? And that place, my friend, is called a cybercafé!

You can find cybercafés all across the world. The Café Net is in Los Angeles, California. "Our custom designed Internet terminals are coin operated, designed with the Melrose Place crowd in mind, so both novices and experts have an easy on-ramp onto the Information Highway." When a new patron logs on at Café Net, they receive their own Email address and a full Internet graphical connection.

Traveling? Check ahead for the closest cyber café. Like Net Coffee or Café Orbital, http://www.cafeorbital.com in Paris, France where they serve "cyberwiches". How about Cyberia in London, http://www.cyberiacafe.net . They offer training courses for the new computer user. A large cappuccino costs £1.50 and half an hour of time on one of the PCs is only £2.50.

Personally, I'd head for NetPoint Royale http://www.netpoint.dk/ in Copenhagen, Denmark. "NetPoint is a multi centre in which the user can get instruction, have contact with his or her company and family members, prepare presentations, make offers, etc." You can get the latest news, contact your family, enter orders directly into company data bases, participate in online training and hold online meetings with your company. The hotel café even communicates with other cybercafés through the Internet. So you can get together with the crew down in Frankfurt, Germany or San Francisco! And you can order a beautiful cup of java or cappuccino.

If you'd like to visit a cybercafé in person, check out the list at http://www.netcafeguide.com/textindex.ht... . Or visit a few cafes via your living room through your cyber connection. It's a great concept. Coffee, computers and friends all together in one place!