Cyber Café Guide version 3.2

8th March 1995

Mark Dz........... email: markdz@easynet.co.uk

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Introduction

• Cafés became popular at the start of the 20th century in Vienna, Paris and Berlin. They are still places for people to meet their friends, read the newspapers, discuss the important events of the day, and to read and answer their ("snail mail") correspondance. Artists and intellectuals and revolutionaries such as Picasso or Sartre used to publish their manifestos from their favourite Cafés.
• This civilized Café culture has been successfully exported even to parts of the UK.
• Today, millions of people communicate with their friends and workmates by means of computer, from their offices or from the privacy of their own homes. Similarly, artists, musicians, video makers and even journalists have begun to wake up to the potential of multimedia computing, and are looking to to work, collaborate and exhibit in a forum more appropriate than the traditional art gallery or theatre spaces.
• Many people have thought that it would be A Good Idea to combine computer connectivity with somewhere to have a decent cup of coffee, in a public place: a "Cyber Café "
• This Guide is my attempt to pull together some of the contacts related to "Cyber Cafés" of various kinds. I have tried to make it quick to download, hence no in-line graphics. I make no apologies for using some of Netscape's non-standard features such as blinking text.
• Please feel free to email me with suggestions and corrections for this Guide, reviews of the Cafés listed here, forthcoming events, temporary festival/exhibition Cafés etc. The categories are quite broad, but I think that a real physical location, open to the public, with coffee (or other food and drink) and computers (not necessarily connected to the Internet) are the minimum requirements for a Cyber Cafe. There are several completly virtual Cafés, some cafés just with adverts on the Web and even some coffee bean retailers with Web pages, but I have to draw a boundary around the topic somewhere.
• If you are thinking of starting your own Cyber Café , have a look at the details (and names) of the existing, "Real Soon Now", and former Cafés and then email me, as I may be able to offer further suggestions and up to date contacts.
• Mark Dz........... email: markdz@easynet.co.uk

Contents

• alt.cybercafes Usenet newsgroup
• Private Enterprise Cyber Cafés.
  • Cyberia, London, UK
  • ICON Byte Bar & Grill, San Francisco, USA
  • Internet Cafe, Scranton, USA
  • Cafe Renaissance, San Diego, USA
  • The Internet Café, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
  • Eek-A-Geek , Toronto, Canada
  • The Habit, Portland, Oregon, USA
  • CB1 - Computer Cafe & Second Hand Bookshop, Cambridge, UK
  • PaperMoon Espresso Café, Ashland, Oregon, USA
  • Internet Café, Seattle, Washington, USA (new)
  • CyberPerk, Ottawa, Canada (now open)
  • Cybersmith, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (new)
• 'Real Soon Now' Cyber Cafés in the planning stages.
  • The Electronic Cafe, London, UK
  • Cyborganic, San Francisco, USA
  • Chatsubo, Baltimore, USA
  • Cyber Dine, Newport, Gwent, UK
  • NetYes Cafe, The Hague, Netherlands
  • Cyberteca, Madrid, Spain
  • cafe.net, Vancouver, Canada
  • Kingston Cyberia, Kingston on Thames, UK (updated)
  • CyBergen, Bergen, Norway (new)
  • Le Café Orbital , Paris, France (new)
• Arts/Government/Community sponsored temporary/festival Cyber Cafés.
  • Electronic Cafe International, Santa Monica, USA
  • ARTEC, London, UK
  • Ponton European Media Arts Lab, Hannover, Germany
  • Hacktic, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Creativity Cafe, San Francisco, USA
  • FoeBud, Bielefeld, Germany
  • RAIN Internet Cafe, Santa Barbara, USA
  • CyberCafe, London, UK
  • Bytes, Belfast, UK(new)
  • SF Net 16 Cafés with public coin-op dialup access in San fFrancisco.
• Former Cyber Cafés
  • Binary Cafe, Toronto, Canada
  • The Help Wanted Cafe, Toronto, Canada
• Other Internet Links of interest to Cyber Café devotees.
  • Cambridge Trojan Room Internet Coffee Machine
  • Sydney University CS Espresso Machine Machine
  • Espressindigo: Silicon Graphics Indigo Espresso Machine
  • Cyberpunk Frequently Asked Questions
  • Coffee related Internet resources
  • DigiCash electronic crypto money
  • Video Conferencing via the Internet

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alt.cybercafes Usenet newsgroup

• Back to Contents
  I have successfully created the the alt.cybercafes Usenet newsgroup. If it is not available on your news feed, have a word with your systems administrator, since "alt" groups are sometimes by request only. You may have to initially edit your newsgroup file or selection by hand, rather than picking it from a standard list e.g. like on Compuserve
  This is intended as a convenient place for requests such as "Does anybody know of a Cyber Café in ...." and as a place to publicise special events such as video link ups between Cyber Cafés. I shall try to post an ASCII version of this guide to the newsgroup regularly as a Frequenty Asked Questions document (FAQ)

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Private Enterprise Cyber Cafés

Although not adverse to sponsorship, these are commercial ventures. Canada and the North West USA seem to be a hive of activity, at present.

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Cyberia, London, UK

• Cyberia is my local Cyber Café , which I visit regularly.
• It has been setup at the headquarters of the London based Internet access provider Easynet, at 39 Whitfield Street, London, W1. This is behind Goodge Street Tube station and the Tottenham Court Road, in the shadow of the BT Tower, by the Toy Museum, and a couple of blocks from the International Coffee Organisation.
• They offer full Internet access on seven 66MHz Intel 486 based Windows for Workgroups connected multimedia PCs, including: Mosaic, telnet, email, Archie, FTP etc. From the Café , you can send an email to/from cyberia@easynet.co.uk even if you do not have a POP3 account on Easynet. One of the aims of the founders of Cyberia (two businesswomen) is to get more women confident in using the Internet. Training courses are also available.
• Cyberia has held several events, from music to debates on censorship, some of which have been broadcast via CU-SeeMe video conferencing. Since opening, an office has been removed so as to give the main Café more floor and table space. A heavy duty Espresso machine has been installed, as the old model could not keep up with demand.
• Cyberia seems to be on TV and in the print media almost every week ! Is this the coolest place in London ?
• A large cappucino costs Ł1.50, and half an hour of time on one of the PCs costs Ł2.50
• Opening times: Mon 11am - 6pm, Tue 11am - 10pm, Wed 11am - 10pm, Thu 11am - 10pm
  Fri 11am - 10pm, Sat 11am - 9pm, Sun 11am - 6pm
  

Easynet offer dialup Windows and Macintosh Internet connectivity, World Wide Web pages etc.

There have been many enquiries about franchises of Cyberia, which "has had more media coverage than a small war. As many as 3 such franchises are set to open soon in the UK alone before the summer, the first in Kingston on Thames.

email: admin@easynet.co.uk
tel: 0171 209 0990

Back to Private Enterprise Cyber Cafés

ICON Byte Bar & Grill, San Francisco, USA

ICON Byte Bar & Grill, 299 9th Street (corner of 9th & Folsom ), South of Market, San Francisco.

• The ICON Byte Bar & Grill is a Café /bar/grill which has a multimedia theme and decor and which serves a full range of food, beveragesand alcoholic drinks (Vince serves an excellent margharita). They hold regular music and multimedia events.
• They also hold Internet classes and demonstrations using their Apple Macintosh Quadra. use which is free to customers.
• Full Internet access including Mosaic, Eudora, Gopher etc is through The Little Garden, and technical support is from a former Well support person.
• contact: Vince Paratore
  tel: 861 BYTE 2983
  tel: 415 861 2983
  email: icon@bytebar.com

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Internet Cafe, Scranton, PA, USA

"People in the Scranton, PA area can now get full Internet access starting at $10/month via the Internet Cafe.
The Internet Cafe is not a BBS, we're a direct Internet site. We offer unlimited Internet access and we'll teach how to use the various utilities that the Internet offers. You can dial in or use our public access terminals in Prufrock's Bookstore and Cafe.

For more information call 717-344-1969 or stop in and see us or the folks at Prufrock's at 342 Adams Ave. in Scranton...Tuesday and Saturday nights are music night."

Dave D. Cawley
Maitre d'
The Internet Cafe
Scranton, Pennsylvania
email: dave@lydian.scranton.com

Back to Private Enterprise Cyber Cafés

Cafe Renaissance, San Diego, CA, USA

"Now that we are on the web, I suppose Cafe Renaissance is a 'global' coffeehouse in a sense. We hope you enjoy seeing the different stages of our coffeeshop and would like to know who is checking us out.

Just send email to: caferen@cts.com

Cafe Renaissance is located in San Diego, California, at 6110 Friars Road,suite #102.
We are about 1 mile west of the Fashion Valley Mall. The shop was the brainchild of Jean-Claude Aldibs, and with the help of his partner Michael Le Bien, opened September 10, 1994. The shop has a computer workstation with a PPP Internet connection, running Mosaic Netscape."

Back to Private Enterprise Cyber Cafés

The Internet Café, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada

"The Internet Café is located in Prince George, British Columbia in Canada.

It is Canada's first full-size Coffee Bar in which you can obtain full access to the Internet, by becoming a member of Synaptic Communications, the first Internet Connection service providor located in British Columbia's Central Interior.

Customers can sip Cappuccino while they "Surf the Net" in the computer lounge. The Café seats 100 people and also has an Arts and Crafts section where products from communities around the world are available through the Self-Help Crafts of the World organization.

The theme of the Internet Café is connections, between the people of Prince George and the rest of the world, through Internet Services and Third World Arts and Crafts.

Synaptic Communications is our Internet host, and the term "Synaptic" refers to the area between neurons where communication takes place. The Internet Café is a central physical location in which face to face communication takes place in a relaxed, informal atmosphere. The plan is to develop the space, which is over 6,000 square feet, into a place for a variety of cultural activities, including musical events, art shows, and public forums. It is available to community groups for meetings, and it offers free terminal access to the local Free-Net."

email: Russ Winterbotham russ@vortex.netbistro.com

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Eeek-A-Geek (Public Internet Cafe), Toronto, Canada

Eeek-A-Geek is now is now the only Cyber Cafe left in Toronto.

eek.a.geek is located at 460b Parliament Street, just south of Carlton on the west side.

The cafe is open from about 11am to 8pm EST .

The menu: has various cakes and coffees including :

Fluffy cappucino....$2 Cdn.
The best Hot Chocolate on the web....$2
Hot Soya Poodle....$3 chocolate or vanilla
etc

"Eek and Geek are two simple 486DX/33's with 8Mb RAM running SLIP and PPP with a couple of 19.2 modems, soon to be 28.8's. We surph the Web with Netscape and babble on IRC with wsirc14b and a bunch of other Windoze SLIP applications, all of which are available from the Internex Archives. Graphics and stuff looks great 'cause of two excellent ATI mach64 graphics thingies connected to high-resolution Sony monitors.

Now that we have our own domain name (eek.org) we'll soon be adding a Linux type server thingy, then, with a little luck+skill+headaches we'll be able to create e-mail boxes for our non-wired neighbours. Keep 'ur eyes on this space as things get more difficult to install.

What does all this cost you ask? Well, we charge an approximate rate of $5 cdn per hour, or pwyc (but you have to help out the newbies while you're at the cafe)".

email: the mistress of eekdom eek@io.org

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CB1 Computer Cafe & Second Hand Bookshop, Cambridge, UK

CB1: computer cafe & second-hand bookshop
32 Mill Road,
Cambridge,
CB1 2AD,
tel: 01223-576306.

email: Daniel Sturdy sturdy@cityscape.co.uk

Open from 11am to 11pm.

CB1 serves coffees, cappuccinos, hot chocolate, sandwiches & cakes, lots of books, 3 Next machines upstairs, and promise of 3 Macs downstairs.

CB1 aims to combine high-tech & low-tech information resources in a non-threatening, friendly environment.

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The Habit, Portland, Oregon, USA

The Habit offers a variety of baked goods and coffee drinks. When possible we try to get items that are of the best quality and are made locally by other small businesses.

Habit menus change from time to time and prices are subject to change from time to time as well. We realize that some customers would prefer to have more food items. We plan on adding a few items but we spend too much time helping people with computers to cook, and have no plans to become a full service restaurant."

There are "five PCs with internet access. Apparently you get so many minutes free if you buy coffee. If you just want to use the terminal, that's available for a buck or so.."

email: Austin Schutz tex@habit.com

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PaperMoon Espresso Café, Ashland, Oregon, USA

The PaperMoon Espresso Cafe's home page. is currently under construction.

PaperMoon is located at 11 N. First St. in Ashland, Oregon .

The FREE Internet connection uses the interesting Open Door internet service provider, who eschew the complexities of Unix , SLIP/PPP etc and use Apple Macintosh and Appletalk technology.

email: papermoon@opendoor.com

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Internet Café, Seattle, Washington, USA

Internet Café

Seattle's first full Internet access coffee house

526 15th Ave East
Seattle
tel: (206) 323-7202

"We're a working espresso bar located in the Capitol Hill section of Seattle. Besides the best damn latte in town we offer full-access Internet terminals where you can do the InfoSuperHighway thing via World Wide Web, gopher, e-mail, usenet, IRC, and telnet. Drop into our free "Intro to the Internet" classes held every Saturday and Sunday at 3pm."

email: erik@oz.net

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CyberPerk, Ottawa, Canada

"CyberPerk is located at 347 Dalhousie St. in Ottawa, Canada.

"We are finally open. We opened the doors on Feb. 24, 1995, so people can come on down. We have 4 pentium 60 machines with 17" monitor going over a dedicated 64 KB ISDN line.

Our Web server is http://204.92.95.200/cyberint.htm. This is a Windows NT machine, pentium 90 with 32 MB RAM. The server only has a Web server running currently, I hope to have our mail server up by the end of March.

On the cafe side, we have a wide variety of coffees, deserts and sandwiches."

Contact Neil Prakash and Stacey Baker.
email: Stacey Baker: 74367.677@compuserve.com

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Cybersmith, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Cybersmith (N.B. The image map is currently broken and there is not much in the way of backup text links)

36 Church St
Harvard Square
tel: 617-492-5857
fax: 617-547-8115

Mon-Sat 9am-11pm, Sun 10am-10pm

In addition to WWW access, they have CD-ROMs, Sega, Nintendo Atari and 3DO games, Virtual Reality simulators and Face Morphing.

They charge 17.5 cents /minute except for the Virtual Reality games at $5 an "experience"

The coffee is meant to be decent as well.

email: hyd@cyberspace.com

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'Real Soon Now' Cyber Cafés

These are people with plans to open a Cyber Café , and who could be interested in hearing from additional potential sponsors or investors.Some of these plans are much nearer to fruition than others.

I am awaiting more details from my correspondants about their plans for Cyber Cafés in Athens, Vienna and Japan.

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The Electronic Cafe, London, UK

• The Electronic Cafe
• Mark Cheverton's plans for a London Café with full Internet access, music, video and perhaps DigiCash.
• email: info@ecafe.org

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Cyborganic

• Cyborganic
• Plans for an electronic and a physical Café in San Francisco.
  
• CYBORGANIC MEDIA
  email: Jenny Cool cool@cyborganic.com
  tel: 415-553-8554
  

Back to 'Real Soon Now' Cyber Cafés

Chatsubo: a tech-cafe, Baltimore, USA

• A soon to open physical Café in Baltimore ?
• Plans to be " an internet-cafe type place, with hopefully DOOMstations and a weird area with all the old video games we grew up with (old ataris, vic 20's etc)"
• email: dystopia@clark.net
  

Cyber Dine: Newport, Gwent, UK

• "Myself & My brother have plans for a CyberCafe, called "Cyber Dine" (a parody
  on the Terminator films, and referring to Dining!!) in Newport.
  We plan to allow maybe just dial-up access initially, but eventually we should
  be able to let a small-ish shop unit. We envisage a catchment area of about
  750,000 people (inc. Cardiff & Bristol).. & should be operational next summer."
  
• Owain Vaughan

Back to 'Real Soon Now' Cyber Cafés

NetYes Cafe, The Hague, Netherlands

• Still in the discussion stage, but open to suggestions:
• NetYes is a play on the Dutch "netjes" which means "good/worthwhile"
• email: Hendrik Jan Hilbolling Hilbolli@xs4all.nl
  Adviseur Automatisering
  Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschappen
  PB 25000, 2700 LZ Zoetermeer, NL
  
• tel: +31(0)79534209
  

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Ciberteca, Madrid, Spain

• "Plans for a internet cafe type place, with full-internet access and Spanish resources on the World Wide Web".
• Javier Poves Paredes
  Dtor. Aulas de Informática
  Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
  
• Tfno: 34-1-3974573
  FAX: 34-1-3973914
  
• email: Javier Poves Paredes jpoves@ccuam3.sdi.uam.es

Back to 'Real Soon Now' Cyber Cafés

cafe.net, Vancouver, Canada

• "cafe.net is an Internet Service Provider that is trying to meet the needs of the internet consumer. One of our goals at cafe.net is to open up a cafe somewhere in Vancouver. The cafe will be a location where one can live in the 'real' world, and dip into the 'cyber' world, or vice versa."
• email: tipping@cafe.net

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Kingston Cyberia, Kingston upon Thames, UK

• The first franchised Cyberia Café will be opening very soon in Kingston upon Thames, initially in premises at 44 High Street (near the historic Coronation Stone). There are two floors, with plans for upwards of a dozen computers.
• email: hunter@easynet.co.uk

Back to 'Real Soon Now' Cyber Cafés

CyBergen, Bergen, Norway

• "Hei Hei,
  Just a quick note for your web page, we are planning to open 'CyBergen' in Bergen, Norway at the beginning of April. We plan to be a comfortable bohemian cafe, with books, some live music, and a large underground exhibition/event space which can be booked. "
• Any enquiries to: Steve Thornton, University of Bergen Physics Institute
• email: steve@maniac.fi.uib.no
  Telephone:- +47 55 21 28 67

Back to 'Real Soon Now' Cyber Cafés

Le Café Orbital, Paris, France

• "The first Parisian cyber café will open in few weeks:
• Le Café Orbital / Riva Sandwiches
  4 rue du Quatre Septembre
  75002 Paris
  (Underground: "Bourse")
  Contact: Baptiste Cadiou
  E-mail: orbital@iway.fr
  phone: +33 1 42 80 24 74"
  

Back to 'Real Soon Now' Cyber Cafés

Arts/Government/Community Sponsored Cyber Cafés

Although the computer equipment etc may attract Arts or Government/Community sponsorship, there is usually a charge for the coffee.

This section also has details of organisations who have created temporary Cyber Cafés, usually for exhibitions or festivals.

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Electronic Cafe International, Santa Monica, USA

Electronic Cafe International, 18th Street Arts Complex, Santa Monica, USA

• "About the Electronic Cafe International
• Rather than food for the body the Cafe serves up "Food for the Mind".
  In an effort to provide Communication Access For Everyone, the cafe is
  a show place and focal point for emerging and leading edge technologies.
• Each month a number of regular and new special events take place. Some
  locally and others involving video teleconferencing and computer links
  across the country or around the world. These events bring together some
  of the most creative artistic, technical and visionary minds in each of
  their respective fields."
• Contact Sherie Rabinowitz
  email: ecafe@netcom.com
  

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ARTEC & interSPACE, London, UK

ARTEC & interSPACE (is this the UK's slowest World Wide Web server ?? )

• These Arts and European Union sponsored organisations have successfully stagedmulti media Cyber Cafés during Arts festivals/ events at London's Institute for Contemporary Arts and South Bank arts complex e.g. the Ecity Café
• They are also involved in training and access to the Internet for underprivileged childeren.

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Ponton European Media Arts Lab, Hannover, Germany

With experience of running Interactive TV broadcasts e.g. Piazza Virtuale, Ponton have developed a cheap "cheesebox" which can sit between a video camera/cam-corder and a PC/Mac/Amiga computer and its modem to send "videophone" type images for about $150.

They are probably going to do something similar for the Atlanta Olympics

Contact : Andreas Uthoff
Ponton European Media Art Lab
Lister Str. 17
D-30163 Hannover
tel: +49 (0)511 62 70 -32
fax: +49 (0)511 62 17 99
email: mail@ponton.hanse.de

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Hacktic, Amsterdam, Netherlands

• Hacktic have provided cheap Internet access in the Netherlands (XS4ALL). They also set up and are still running the successful "Digital City", giving Internet access from 6 public terminals in Amsterdam, to interact with the local city government, but also to provide chat and email facilities to the general public.
• They have an IRC chat cafe in the virtual world of the Digital City.
• contact Felipe Rodriguez
  email: felipe@hacktic.nl
  

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Creativity Cafe, San Francisco, USA

• Creativity Cafe
• A multimedia Artists Resource Centre, with plans for a permanent Internet presence.
• They recently organised live transmissions using CU-SeeMe video conference broadcasts over the Internet from a shipwreck off Hawaii, from the Burning Man event in Arizona etc.
• Creativity Cafe
  c/o Peter H.Rosen
  2263 Sacramento St, #2
  San Francisco
  CA 94115
  USA
  
• voice: 415-776-0821
  voice mail: 415-776-7040
  
• email: CreateCafe@creativity.net

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FoeBuD, Bielefeld, Germany

FoeBud are a focal point for arts, education, technology and culture.

They help people connect via Feminist, Green, Human Rights, and other Bulletin Board Systems (including, since this is Germany, via ISDN) and also through the Internet.

They have monthly lectures and hold weekly meetings at the Cafe Spinnerei, Heeperstr 64, every Thursday at 20:00

FoeBuD e.V., Marktstr.18, D-33602 Bielefeld
Tel: 0521-175254
Fax: 0521-61172
Box: 0521-68000
E-Mail: foebud@bionic.zer.de

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RAIN Cafe Internet, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

• RAIN Cafe Internet
• "Every Thursday - from 6 to 9 pm - the R.A.I.N. Network is hosting CAFE INTERNET - a gathering of 60 to 80 people round some Mac and PC computers working to learn the first steps of Navigation on the Internet or the advanced steps of Internet as a multi-media viewer out onto the Global Net.
• Talk has been heard that the Cafe is starting in Ventura mid-September at the Barnes and Noble Book Store down there and soon as the Side Street Cafe in Santa Ynez. A discussion about the starting of an Ojai Cafe Internet is underway at the same time. The CAFE INTERNET was intended to bring into focus the poetry, music"

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CyberCafe, London, UK

• CyberCafe
• Heath Bunting's plans for a London Café , now no longer seem to include real coffee and computers. He is still involved with some interesting performance art, especially involving public telephones.
• email: heath@flux.demon.co.uk
  Voice mailbox 01374 823 840
  Bulletin Board System 0171 240 3332
  

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Bytes, Belfast, UK

• There are four Bytes centres in Belfast, sponsored by the local Department of Education as well as the likes of Apple and Lego. They provide techno-friendly places for young people to have access to computers, printers, scanners etc and also to use the Internet and perhaps to cross the sectarian divide.
• The Falls Road Bytes Centre, at least, also serves tea and coffee. The organisers Michael and Daithí seem to have created a lively, helpful cyber café atmosphere. (Apparently a third of the users of the Byte centres are female, which probably helps).
• I would welcome reviews of this or any of the other Bytes centres.
• email: bytes@worknet.thegap.com
  or: info@cinni.org
  

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SF Net, San Francisco, USA

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• One of the inspirations for many Cyber Cafés has been the need to show that computers and communications technology are not just for introverted, socially inept, male, computer addicts. This can be seen in action in San Francisco:
• SF Net is a local Bulletin Board System in the SF Bay area with public dialup terminals (coin operated and well armoured either upright or built into a table) in several "normal" San Francisco Cafés. They have an Internet mail gateway. The dialup speed of 2400 baud, which although not enough for WWW, is adequate for people to have a cup of coffee, read their messages, chat online to other users in other SF Net equipped cafes or at home. SF Net has about 3000 users. When I visited, most of the people using the dial up terminals were both young and female.
• The price is 25 cents for 5 minutes connect time, which seems reasonable, in a city where a cappuccino is a dollar or more.

San Francisco SF Net Cafes

The Coffee Zone....1409 Haight Street (Haight-Ashbury former "hippie" area)

Ground Zero.........783 Haight Street

The Horseshoe.......566 Haight Street

Muddy Waters........521 Valencia Street (Latino Mission District)

The Club Coffee.....920 Valencia Street

Muddy's............1304 Valencia Street

Brain Wash.........1122 Folsom Street (a Cafe & Launderette ! South of Market)

Jammin Java........1398 9th Street

Jammin Java.........701 Cole Street

Java Coast.........2331 Chestnut Street

Java Source.........343 Clement Street

Java Beach.........1396 La Playa

Globel Hostel........10 Hallam

Bay Area SF Net Cafes

Berlin Wall Coffee House...2517 Durant Avenue, Berkeley

Gaylord's Cafe.............4150 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland

Royal Grounds..............1146 4th Street, San Rafael

SF Net local area modem dialup numbers 8-N-1 ANSI

San Francisco...........(415) 824-8747

South San Francisco.....(415) 589-2194

Burlingame..............(415) 375-8478

Oakland.................(510) 450-0155

San Leandro.............(510) 638-8644

Richmond................(510) 215-7732

Sausalito...............(415) 332-3923

San Rafael..............(415) 454-4983

Castro Valley...........(510) 727-0786

Pleasanton..............(510) 462-4495

Danville................(510) 838-2158

contact: Wayne Gregori
SF Net
P.O. Box 460693
San Francisco
CA 94146
USA
Voice (415) 695-9824
email: wgregori@sfnet.com

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Former Cyber Cafés

Enterprises change, people move on to other things. This section has former Cafés, whose URLs and email addresses may outlast their physical existance.

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Binary Cafe, Toronto, Canada

• Binary Cafe and Hexadecimal Emporium, upstairs at 502 Yonge St.
• This used to offer, serial (multi player) DOOM, as well as a place to get hold of copies of 2600, Wired, bOING bOING magazines etc, various high tech toys and cafe food and beverages. They still have Web pages, but I am now informed that it has turned into a Shiatsu parlour !
• email: bincafe@io.org

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The Help Wanted Cafe, Toronto, Canada

• Help Wanted Cafe The second cyber Café in Yonge Street.. My Canadian correspondants inform me that this one is no longer in business, and that they used to charge $5 per hour for the use of their PS/1 486sx machine(s) upstairs above the main Café .
  
• The Help Wanted Café
  2372 Yonge Street
  Toronto, Ontario
  Canada
  
• email: helpcafe@io.org
  

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Other Internet Links

of interest to to Cyber Café devotees.

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Cambridge Internet Coffee Machine

• Just to show how far coffee and computers can be linked together, the people at the University of Cambridge have their filter coffee pot linked to the Internet. If you are curious, have a look at the Trojan Room Coffee Machine
• This takes a picture of the state of the coffee pot every second or so, and digitises it into JPEG format.

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Sydney University CS Espresso Machine

• Currently the Sydney University CS Espresso Machine is of passing interest.

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Espressindigo: Silicon Graphics Indigo Espresso Machine

• Artists are also as interested in computers and coffee as computer scientists. Austrian born artist Eva Grubinger has created a sculpture from a Silicon Graphics Indigo computer, by replacing the silicon chips with an Espresso coffee machine. This is currently on a world wide gallery tour with works by other Berlin based artists.
• email her and help me to petition herfor a .gif/.jpeg/mpeg image of this remarkable device !
• Eva is also the curator/creator of a Web Space for other artists called Computer Aided Curating, a World Wide Web based art gallery

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Cyberpunk Frequently Asked Questions

• Those of you who have read books like "Neuromancer" by William Gibson or have seen films like"Blade Runner", which feature Cyber Cafés and Bars, may be interested in the Cyberpunk FAQ compiled by Erich Schneider
• The latest Cyberpunk FAQis regularly posted to the alt.cyberpunk Usenet Newsgroup.
• Usenet Newsgroups of interest include:
  
• alt.cyberpunk
  alt.cyberpunk.tech
  alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo - short stories & literature
  alt.cyberpunk.movement
  alt.cyberspace
  alt.games.doom - a very busy newsgroup
  

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Coffee related Internet resources

• alt.drugs.caffeine - coffee and serious caffeine abuse
  alt.coffee
  alt.food.coffee
  rec.food.drink.coffee
  
• If you are curious about the best way to make Espresso coffee or the lethal dose of caffeine,
  then consult Alex Lopez-Ortiz'sCoffee and Caffeine Frequently Asked Questions
• Over The Coffee is a good starting point for other coffee related resources, as is the The Griffin Coffee House

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DigiCash - Electronic Crypto Money

• DigiCash
• Some of the Cyber Cafés are contemplating the use of DigiCash i.e. virtual money relying on strong public key encryption techniques, to pay for online services, food and drink etc.

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Video Conferencing via the Internet

• Cyberia and some of the other Cafés have successfully used CU-SeeMe videoconferencing to show the Internet what they are up to.
• The latest CU-SeeMe client software (Macintosh and Windows) is available via ftp from ftp.gated.cornell.edu
• To join the CU-SeeMe discussion list send an e-mail message to listserv@cornell.edu containing "subscribe CU-SeeMe-L" (less the quote marks) in the body of the message.
• Michael Sattler has an excellent Web Page on CU-SeeMe, independant of the Cornell developers and keeps a list of Reflector sites, forthcoming events etc.
• MBONE Multicasting , with higher available bandwidth has been used for such cultural gems as Rolling Stones concerts and may find its way out of academia soon. This is not yet the mythical Information SuperHypeway, but it does give a taste of the future.

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