Max Schumacher
New York
ms518@is7.nyu.edu

Paper for Food and Performance
with Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Performance Studies, Tisch School
of the Arts, New York University

The Fourth Place - My Cafe Is My Sand-box(1)
Play with your food and your computers - The role of food in cybercafes

The issue of  food in cybercafes reveals the antagonism of the fully
organic of food and the totally electronic of computers and how the
analogy of these two realms is not crucial to a cybercafe. Food and
computers are reduced to their function as attributes in a complex
semiotic structure that contains and represents playfulness on different
levels. The theme-cafes with a multi-functional service distinguish each
other in their degree of self-awareness of their playfulness. They play
with their themes, food and computers, trying to create a cafe that
nourishes your mind as well as your body(2).

Preface
My first approach was focusing on the role of food and its relationship
with computers. For that I observed the consumers in my two main sites,
the Cybercafe on Lafayette and the Internetcafe on 3rd Street. I hardly
saw anybody eat, most of them had only coffee, some didnt consume food /
beverages at all. My initial fascination with the paradox and incongruity
of two realms, food and computers, seemed to have no empirical evidence.
If the act of eating is grotesque, does it not only subvert the official
seriousness as Bakhtin calls it (3) in general, but the cleaness and
purity and therefore the cool and unapproachable cyberspace as well? If we
suppose that cyberspaces main qualities are unbodilyness and speed, what
does the proximity or synchronicity of food mean to the customer? What
does it tell us about the consumers behaviour? Apparently its rather the
stimulative qualities of sugar and caffeein supporting the act of
increased brain activity of the computer user. Most waiters and consumers
interviewd were very outspoken and self-aware about these effects. Nobody
mentioned the desire to consciously combine the pleasures of eating and
surfing the net etc. I had to admit that I had believed my own assumptions
of simultaneous pleasures of eating and surfing the net were
mass-phenomenas. I do like eating and computing simoultaniously and I do
like Bachtins ideas of the grotesque. Finally I found out that all these
aspects have a role in the play of the complex semiotic structure that is
proven to guarantee the survival of a cafe-genre that faces a crisis. In
an analyzis of food and computers in cybercafes nothing can be central
because the point is that nothing may be central in a cybercafe, neither
the food nor the computers.

Introduction
My point of departure is the crisis of cybercafes which explains the need
of a polymorphous character of these places. This character is based on
playfulness which I define as postmodern form of identity (according to
Z.Bauman) and discuss with Ray Oldenburgs model of the third place. The
playfulness of cybercafes produces potentially a grotesque attitude
towards cyberspace. The grotesque act of eating familiarizes the
seriousness of cyberspaces hypermobility. In the following I investigate
the strategies of three cybercafes. Since cybercafes double their
appearance by existing virtually and physically I start my approaches with
a look on their web-pages, like many patrons do as well. This reveals the
elements the cafe owners emphasize. I continue that analysis with my
fieldwork at the actual cafes. 1) The Cybercafe stages avant-gardness in a
design theater where food and computers become decorative elements in an
aesthetisized visual play. 2) The Mega-Bite positions food and computers
central under the paradigm of kosherness. 3) The Internet Cafe performs
playfulness. The marginalization of computers and the emphasis on food on
their web-page are meant to lower the threshold to the place and to
cyberspace. Not depending on neither nor, the cafe is a perfect example
for a polymorphous cafe. In the end I assert limitations in Oldenburgs
rigid model. By insisting on the dominance of conversation at third places
he contradicts the playfulness he postulates for them. This I see rooted
in his limited definition of play. I engage Cailloiss expanded model of
plays to develope a postmodern playfulness. This kind of playfulness can
be found in a cafe where food-consumption and computer-use are part of a
variety of possible activities. This is what explains the continuous
success of the Internet Cafe and broadens the idea from a third to a
fourth place.
Kick-off with the Doomed
The New York Times has only published six articles on cybercafes. Four of
them were written in 1996, the year most cybercafes opened in New York. At
that time it was trendy, fresh and news fit to print (NY Times motto).
According to a recent New York Times article, cybercafes are facing a
crisis, if not their decline. Mixing java and Java seemed like a good idea
at one time, but it faded fast.(4), as Michel Marriott puts it.. So, is
this the tombstone of a genre? The end of an experiment? The proof that
computers and food dont match? Its just the end of a media hype. And its
an attempt to construct a very mono-causal history and simplified
explanation of the phenomena of computers in food-places. Marriotts
article lacks precise research and exaggerates a specific profile of
customers - who are all about to get their own computer and sharply cut
down  their visits to cybercafes once they got one. They sit between
deserted computers and are not even paying customer(s). It is correct,
some places closed down and there are problems for existing cybercafes.
Still, the first given example, the IDT Mega Bite did not close down
because of financial problems. On the contrary, the business was extremely
well doing, as I will describe later. The logic of the article is that
because everybody has a computer at home, nobody needs to go to cybercafes
any more. In countries where computer and Internet use has significantly
lagged behind that in the United States, the cybercafe scene still
sizzles. The only alternative are tourist places like Hawaii, where people
miss their computers or have time for the fun part in it. I strongly
disagree with the polemic of this thesis. Of course the increased amount
of private internet-access has had its impact on cybercafes, but I rather
investigated  the quality (what are the cafes like and what do people do
there?) rather than the quantity (numbers of customers and cafes). How
have cybercafes changed? And why do they still exist in New York City?
What has food got to do with this?  No wonder Marriott places Arthur
Perley at the very end the article: The owner of the Internetcafe, is
contradicting the tendency of the article. He was the first to open a
cybercafe in New York. And his business is doing fine - which is not
mentioned in the article.


This is the kind of place that we hope people would enjoy 
even if there werent any computers here. 
Once, the dazzle wears off, once the hype wears off, then reality is
sitting there. 
What is it? 
Oh, its a computer sitting in the corner, and you have a cafe.(4)

This needs to be interpreted. I will do that with this paper. 


Contextualize Cybercafes: Playground versus Monolith
Neither food nor computers are central to a cybercafe. Food and computers
are both used as attributes, conceptual and actual decoration. Their
presence is not necessarily crucial to a cybercafe. Their role is
decreasing as leading theme. Never the less they are important.
It is the significant characteristic of late nineties cybercafes that they
do not depend on one central thing. Cafes use the aura of computers, food,
newspapers and games. They do provide a service linked to these fields,
but the aura-provider (computers etc.) only work within a particular
setting. They compliment each other. If there was no drinks served, the
pure service of computer facilities is what we get at Kinkos.
Only because there is the aura of a cafe, of coffee culture, computing
becomes enjoyable as leisure time. Otherwise we would have a Kinkos
setting. Only because we have newspapers and books, computers are not
dominating the Internetcafe. A huge variety of customers with very diverse
ideas about what to do in a cafe can be satisfied in multi-service cafes
because of the variety offered and the feeling of playfulness. The aura of
computers does re-evaluate food. The aura of food does have an impact on
computing. The same is true for all auras for all kinds of themes /
services. Places like Newscafe and Drips (Amsterdam/83rd) provide either
newspapers or dating-catalogues. In the former case the name of the place
and its decoration correspond to the main idea of the place, in the latter
it is insider knowledge that is necessary to the customer to know that the
trendy place with ancient cereal boxes at the wall is not only an arty
hang-out place. Both places offer entertainment which is not paid for
extra or which one is not expected to take advantage of.. But because there
is a possible occupation, time is treated differently. Customers are not
expected to hang out for long in Starbucks-type cafes. These places are
fast-food cafes. Many other places expect you to consume not only a drink,
but at least sweets. And in bars one is supposed to drink alcohol or to
show up in a group. Only very few cafes in America do really have the
qualities of a relaxed, informal place where a single person can spent a
long time doing what ever she or he likes, including reading, writing  and
communicating. Are these the true third places(5), as Ray Oldenburg calls
it?

Oldenburgs Third Place
Departing from an analysis of America as high mobility society(6) with its
increased need for integrating places Ray Oldenburg provides a model of
what he calls the third place which is a public gathering area. The first
place is home and the second is the working place. The division between
the two is a consequence of industrialization. Especially in America where
there is a lack of public spaces because of mislead urban development
there is the need for third places most often substituted with gastronomic
places. He calls them 
Homes away from home where unrelated people relate.(7) 
The high mobility society contains both a high percentage of people moving
their homes frequently and an environment that is hostile to both walking
and talking. In walking people become part of their terrain, they meet
others...in talking people get to know one another, they find and create
their common interest.(8) According to Oldenburg a cafe may not have a
central issue except the communication of the patrons. Oldenburgs model
will be discussed later and used as approach to analyze the function of
components of cybercafes, food and computers. My thesis is that there is a
crisis for cybercafes in a computerized world only if the computers are
too central. There is enough places to get computer services provided
(Kinkos etc.). And the fascination of the hipness of the Internet is
fading away since its becoming a standard means of communication. Its the
extra, the plus, that makes a cafe attractive, the playfulness with and
surrounding the computers.



Playing with the Playfulness
Zygmund Bauman offers a very condensed model for postmodern identities,
which I would like to use for the cafes, their owners and their customers. 

If the modern problem of identity was how to construct an identity and
keep it solid and stable, the postmodern problem of identity is primarily
how to avoid fixation and keep the options open.... the catchword of
modernity was creation, the catchword of postmodernity is recycling. (9)

This is perfectly true for cybercafes as well. Featuring a post-modern
media did not make them postmodern places per se. The concept of computers
as the single main attraction staged the internet in a modern way. The
places founded around 1995 and having a computer-lingo name, created their
identity with the aura of new interactive telecommunication and, at least
speaking about the US, joined the great cafe-renaissance and
coffee-culture. This is why the lament and bankruptcy is only concerning
modern cybercafes - but not hybrid places offering cybercafe-qualities and
more. This is why there are more and more places indeed offer
cyber-stations, or so called cyberbooth (10). Many clubs, for example the
Void or the Knitting Factory are on-line all the time, offering free
e-mail access or internet-use. The idea of the permanent presence of
computers in gastronomic spaces has not faded away. Only the limitation of
computers as the only attraction has led to some cafes end. Cybercafes
work best, according to my thesis, by being postmodern in their structure
and their existence, because then they meet most precisely their customers
characteristics. According to Bauman the four characteristics of
postmodern existence are the stroller, the vagabond, the tourist and the
player. All the venues I studied were in areas of the city where people
are flaneurs / strollers with their perception described by Bauman (11),
inspired by Benjamin and modernized with Henning Bechs telicity concept
(12): everything becomes surface, the stroller is not committed to
anything. The same is true for the internet-surfer. All cafes had a high
and still increasing percentage of tourists as customers. The tourist is a
conscious seeker of experience...of difference and novelty, but the
strange is tame, domesticated and no longer frightens. What does a
cybercafe do to provide the tourist, that is tamed (13), experience of the
cyber-world (The answer is: offering food, see below)? Two kinds of
traveling merge in a cybercafe, the journey to New York and the one to
cyberspace. 
Speaking more practically the tourists attraction by cybercafes may be
explained with the growing dependency on e-mail communication and more and
more tourists need to check the mail on vacation (14). Most obvious
computers offer games and the internet offers playful research - so we can
assert the player-quality in conjunction with cybercafes. And, to top it
all, my main interview with Arthur Perley revealed the owner of a
cybercafe to be playing with his own life and his Internet Cafe alike. 
My second approach to the lasting fascination of cybercafes is a discourse
I cannot prove with my field work. I will explain why. Nevertheless it
seems to be proved by the strategy in the Internet Cafes construction of a
self on the Internet, which I will discuss later. The discourse of the
grotesque in the following section is both an example and an indicator for
the above asserted discourse of playfulness. I will link the two
discourses in the final section.


Whats Grotesque About Cybercafes?
What ever kind of places cybercafes are, they are actual, physical places,
being at the threshold of cyberspace. Does the hypermobility of cyberspace
interfere with being at a real place? As Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
writes in Spaces of Dispersal:

...hypermobility not only divides and disperses people and activities that
once occupied a contiguous space..., but also collapses spaces of
dispersal abbreviating the time that it takes to get from here to
there.(15)

This can be true for two main sorts of customers of cybercafes, tourists
and web-surfers alike. It can mean convenience and terror. How do
customers in a cybercafe experience this? What could be possible
strategies against the anxiety of hypermobile times?
In Bakhtins model of the grotesque humor within his paradigm of carnival
ambivalence he renders food a central role and subversive character.

Eating and drinking are one of the most significant manifestations of the
grotesque body. The distinctive character of this body is its open
unfinished nature, its interaction with the world.(16)
Though describing circumstances of medieval banquets he formulates
phenomena which are useful for positioning our (post-)modern body as well.
What if we read interactive telecommunication and the international
Internet as a representation of the world if not as another world, the
cyberspace, which we interact with as a whole while we are browsing?

...the body transgresses here its own limits: it swallows, devours, rends
the world apart, is enriched and grows art the worlds expense. ...  
Here man tastes the world, introduces it into his body, makes it part of
himself.(17)

By surfing the net we become part of this. There is a lot written on the
fascination of the liminal experience of cyberspace, mostly praising it
enthusiastically like Timothy Leary (LSD for the nineties(18)) or as flow
(Mihaly Csikszentmihaly (19)). In these approaches it is taken for
granted, that the paradox of high-speed traveling without physical
movement is only causing pleasure. Why isnt it causing discomfort as well?
I would like to argue that there are strategies against this, because
hypermobility can cause fear as well. Why arent both the world of computer
technology and cyberspace equaling with what Bakhtin calls the official
seriousness? It depends on very individual practices how one encounters
the cyber-world.

...Mans encounter with the world in the act of eating is joyful,
triumphant; he triumphs over the world , devours it without being devoured
himself. The limits between man and the world are erased, to mans
advantage.(20) 
Maybe we do get lost, devoured by the electronic world. Maybe we dont.
Within the ritual of internet encounter one can place David Tomas idea of
the postorganic. The unbodilyness indeed is the key to both fascination
and fear of cyberspace-encounter. We cannot devour the cyberspace as we
can the world according to Bakhtin. Isnt it possible instead to undermine
the postorganic structure of that encounter by the other encounter with
the real world? Following Bakhtin we triumph over the world by devouring
it. What impact has this triumph over a simultaneous encounter?
While eating we perceive ourselves in our bodily existence. What impact
does this have on our flow into / in cyberspace? Irving, chef of the
Mega-Bite cafe, tells me, that people sometimes forget about their food.
Speaking in terms of Bauman food touristifies cyberspace: In the tourists
world the strange is tame, domesticated and no longer frightens. The
tourist has a home as part of the safety package(21). In this case the
cafe is the home, and food is a constant reminder to the body of that
home.
I dare drawing too many consequences from the potential of grotesque
subversion of the postorganic cyberworld by eating. It would take a
year-long observation, survey and psychology to gain non-speculative
enlightenment. Nevertheless, the interference between two kinds of worlds
and two kinds of experiences allow us another perspective on the potential
of a cybercafe. Theoretically one can eat and compute at home or at work
as well. What difference would a cybercafe make? Here it is not a taboo -
as it is in computer-labs and many offices, but the norm to eat and drink
while being at a computer. The structure of the place encourages us to do
what we might do at home - but not necessarily do. 
The discourse of the grotesque exemplifies playfulness. The optionality of
the grotesque experience indicates a playful multi-focality. The terror of
an official seriousness, represented by cyberspace or computing in
general, can be playfully undermined. This form of subversion is optional,
it depends on the attitude of the user and the character of the place. The
existence of a grotesque food-computer relationship indicates the
playfulness of a cybercafe. This will be proved with the Mega-Bites actual
practice and the Internet Cafes virtual double. 


Three Sites, Two Approaches

I. Virtual Cafes - the Construction of  Identity on the Internet
An analysis of a cybercafe should not only take into consideration the
interior architecture, the menu, the corporate design, the staff and other
aspects of the venue itself, but the cafes self- presentation on the net.
For all cybercafes it is crucial to be not only present, but presented
professionally on the net. Their web-sites offer interesting aspects about
their concept, explain their aim and allow interesting conclusions. The
virtual cafe has a very peculiar relationship to the actual cafe. Both
depend on each other. The credibility and professionality of the cybercafe
gets measured by its on-line representation. If a place offering access to
the Internet, assists in creating webpages for customers, then it has to
prove its competence in its self-presentation. The home-page of a cafe is
at home as the homepage of your screen before you start to surf or to
interact with cyberspace. So the home-page can be seen both before one
actually has gone to the actual cafe or when starting to surf the web in a
cybercafe.
Since my focus is the interdependence of the different aspects of a
cybercafe, food in particular, I regard it as very significant to see the
role of food on the web-page (since Mega-Bite closed, unfortunately the
web-page did as well. Web pages life is in the presence...There is no
archive for web-pages.). The purpose of advertisement is obvious, but hard
to measure in its success. The advertisement target two groups, patrons to
the cafe and potential business partners, either hiring the place
(especially in the case of the Cybercafe, see the preceding chapter) or
getting a web-page or other internet-services. The groups have very
varying knowledge about computing technology. So the main paradox both
analyzed pages have to deal with is being professional as well as
accessible. 
Different from other forms of advertisements web-pages serve not only to
target the (potential or actual) customer. There is two characteristics
unique to web-presence: First, the setting up of a homepage follows the
logic of  it has to exist, that is negative advertisement: the lack of an
www-adress is obnoxious to a modern business. The existence of a
web-address is more important than the actual content. And the design and
technical quality of a page are more important than the  verbal content.
Secondly, creating a homepage equals creating a self, constructing an
identity. That is relevant for the one who is creating it as much or even
more than for the reader/web-surfer. This resembles what I argue in my
paper Assyrians in Cyberspace(24): Diasporic performance on the Internet
is most likely to be for the dispersed rather than for the imagined reader
or readers in the home country who often have no Internet-access.  
Webpages create the corporate identity, the concept of a self of a
company, or rather what the owner of a company wants the company to be
like - to build identity, to get self-esteem, to motivate employees. This
is why I regard the analysis of web-pages to be so fruitful. Its telling a
lot about both what a thing is and what it ideally - according to the
owner -  should be like. 
With this and the food-focus in mind we can get started.

II. Problematic Fieldwork
After having approached a cybercafe via the Internet we should have a
close look at the actual cafe. Both of my main sites I visited about 5
times each at different times of the day. According to Gregory, waiter at
the Cybercafe, another crucial factor of why people go or dont go to the
Cybercafe is the weather. He explained that this does not depend on a day
to day basis but on the sequence of several days (e.g. if there is several
days with rain and suddenly there is a sunny morning, people come in
masses. If there is several nice weather days people rather hesitate...).
Another aspect of how many customers come and what kind of customers come
is next to the day of the week (weekdays / weekend days) the season (for
tourists) and holidays. Strictly seen it was impossible to cover all
variations and to draw too many conclusions from that. 
It turned out to be almost impossible to interview customers at computers,
because they are paying money for their time. And everybody was leaving
immediately after using the computer. Especially at the Cybercafe people
performed business, being stressed out - apparently as a sign of their
professionality. Secondly I often felt supervised by the owners or
managers of the cafes who I did not want to annoy. So most of my
interviews are with employers and employees. 
1) The Cybercafe

An ubiquous logo and an empty space (http://www.cyber-cafe.com/)
The Cybercafes web-design is very stylish. Before we even open it we are
get two options offered: Decaffeinated or Caffeinated, meaning graphically
advanced or not. Both versions are well designed, having the logo of the
cafe central. There is a corporate design given that is very stylish,
silver-white-dark blue. Its technoid without contradicting the notions of
contemporary design. The logo is representing the corporate identity. It
is showing the world Cybercafe with a circle around the cafe and two lines
leading out of the circle. There is different ways of understanding this.
This could be an ashtray with a cigarette or a cup of coffee from above,
or it is a mouse with cable. The logo is in silver with reflections on the
ring. The circle frames the cafe, the cafe is surrounded, protected -
different from the outside area where there is cyber. Cyber(-space) is
infinite. And the cafe is the only fixed point we have, our home, our
base, our point of departure. The logo is on all four windows (that is two
sides of the cubic room of the cafe and on one wall in huge letters, about
1,5 m wide. So the logo accompanies us from the virtual to the actual cafe
and the other way round. You cant miss it. Its more present than the
Star-Spangled Banner in the USA.
Visiting the homepage we are welcomed by the caffeine metaphor. Caffeine
is the drug associated with a coffeehouse, it is the stimulant we expect
from both internet and coffee. The metaphor is illustrated with a
photograph of coffeebeans. The actual web-site welcomes us with a
film-noir shot on the interior of the cafe - without food. Only one in ten
sub-menus is a real menu (not a link to computer or service related
sub-sites). Its almost at the bottom of the list, between Cyber-classes
and Our Technology. The categories of the menu are sandwiches, salads and
soups, pastries and beverages. The food is described very technically and
not advertised. Its a very unappealing list. Every category is introduced
with a faded photography of a related item (paprika for the salads etc.).
Summarizing it is to state that food plays a minor role in the
self-representation of the Cybercafe. Apparently it is not an important
issue to the promotion of the place. Central are technology and design. In
the self-description there is an illustration showing a logo of a cup as a
window showing a highway to the sunset at the horizon. Its the information
superhighway (25), seen through a symbol for a cup, not an image of a cup,
transcending it. Food is de-centralized, technizised and made
post-organic. 

See and Be Seen - The Strategy of the Cybercafe
To contextualize cybercafes into the history of cafes its worth reading
Hattox on the coffeehouses, upcoming in the sixteenth-century:

One went to the coffeehouse not merely because one wished to drink coffee.
One went to the coffeehouse to go out, to spend the evening in the society
of his fellows, 
to be entertained, to see and to be seen.(22)
Even from its very beginning the variety of services and pleasures is
polymorphous. Coffee is rather the occasion or decoration than the central
issue. This explains why the same word became symbol for something bigger
- the venue itself (coffee - cafe).
The same can be said about a postmodern cybercafe. The computer is
providing a name, an aura, a feeling, an atmosphere - or in the lingo of
marketing: an image. That is what gets sold to the customer - and even
more obvious - to customers renting the whole space in case of the
Cybercafe. They make probably most of their money neither with computer
fees and selling food, but with subletting the whole place to customers
from the computer industry, banks, media and education. The list of
companies who rented the Cybercafe is impressive, including America
Online, American Express, Colombia University (not even in the
neighborhood!), Microsoft, MTV and the TV Food Network (Ha!). Apparently
the philosophy sells:

Cybercafe offers the most cutting edge location for events. Show your
clients that your company is ready for the technologies tomorrow.(23)
 They advertise with their interesting avant-garde location, where they
suggest product launches with We have the hardware to make your product
shine and media events, again providing the technology and experience with
it. 
Again visibility is central. The simultaneity of seeing and been seen
stated above concerning the 16th century is transformed to a higher level.
Neither food nor computers are important. Computers are the guaranty for
technical up-to-dateness - and embedded in the world of media: Cybercafe
promotes itself as location for media events...and as backdrop for film
and television.(web-page). The industry of viewing merges with the place
of  to see and be seen. According to Evan Gailbreath, manager, the cafe
caters food - comprehensive dinners - for banquets, while people go to the
terminals to use the Internet etc. Unfortunately I could not witness such
an event in the period of my research. Anyway:
The Cybercafe transforms the concept of a cybercafe - away from a cafe for
a guest, but for another host. They sell the image to a higher level and a
higher price. The transformation of a cybercafe can happen because its
high semiotic load which is avoiding food and computers as central.

The Cybercafe - An Actual Visit
As second cybercafe in New York the Cybercafe, opened in Summer 1995,
conceptualized by Robert Angeleone, it is run by Steve Acosta and Evan
Galbraith. The latter is now corporate director. I talked to him several
times informally, but we were not able to get together to an interview due
to his dense schedule, according to him. The cafe is on Lafayette Street
and -often used in the self-description - in SoHo. It is close to the
museums on Broadway (African Art, Guggenheim SoHo and newmuseum) and the
tourists pedestrian highway to Little Italy and Chinatown. The interior is
extravagant, there are silver chairs and village-style ceramic-mosaic
tables. The ceiling is high, the columns are 19th century. The dominant
colors are dark blue. The logo of the cafe (see above) is on the windows
and the wall. The eight terminals are either at the windows or around the
central column. There is a sharp distinction between the computer-service
and the food-area. The computer-bar is not only to order access to a
computer, but to purchase hardware, software and merchandising with the
cybercafe logo on (base-caps, T-shirts etc.). The food-bar is hiding the
kitchen-area. The waiters are wearing black T-shirts with the cafes logo
on. According to Even Galbraith they hire people who are either
experienced with the food-part or the computer-part(29). Then they train
them in the other. My waiter served me with the adorable care and
concentration of a child pouring wine into fathers wine-glass for the
first time. Gregory is Lithuanian immigrant and computer fanatic, his
gastronomic experience is very fresh.
Whenever I came there the cafe was exclusively used by computer users.
They never had more than a drink, although there is a variety of
sandwiches, salads and deserts on the menu. Most of them came on their
own. Their communication with the service personnel was very brief, most
of them knew how to operate their computer. The two main groups I would
identify were tourists (mostly couples with guide-books) and a typical
SoHo-crowd of alternative Yuppies. These very fashionably dressed people
would demonstrate a web-page to a business-partner or print a fancy color
print. The average visit is exactly 30 minutes long which is minimum
access-time one can purchase. The coolness of the visitors resembled the
design of the place and the image of the cafe expressed on the webpage.
The threshold to computer-technology might theoretically be lowered by an
experienced staff, but I rarely witnessed customers who were not belonging
to the two main groups. I strongly believe that the place is intimidating
many people for the reasons others are attracted by it. There is a huge
emphasis on computer technology. The Cybercafe organizes classes
(distancing the help from normal cafe-hours and commodifying it), sells
soft- and hardware and is proud of the newest technology (30). So I like
to argue that food and the idea of a cafe are merely more than decorations
to camouflage the coldness of technology. So the self-description given on
the web is rather an Utopia than anything else:

Pass your time with a purpose, make new friends, exchange ideas and
pioneer the future. Join us at Cybercafe and take a trip into
tomorrow.(31)
Except for the first imperative, which I witnessed to excess, this is
wishful thinking. The customer gets the opportunity to stage him/herself
in the brightness and transparency of the space. In that they are not
different at all from the 16th century patrons described by Hattox.  The
place sells an image of coolness to the customer which is not depending on
pure technology but the combination of design and the mythical notion of
cyber-space. The pure technology as provided in offices and
computer-stores would be too ordinary for the stylish SoHo customer. I am
convinced that what certain customers actually buy is the chance to
perform themselves as contemporary and cool. Thats another reason they
dont eat, because eating would be too vulgar, too uncool, too bodily.
Summarizing one can describe the strategy of the place as camouflaging the
coldness of computers with the coolness of design to serve a
performance-need for a prestige-minded target-group. That makes the place
a theater and minimizes the role of food to stage-design.
Taking into consideration my analysis of the Cybercafes strategy (in the
section Seen and to be seen) the theatricality of coolness makes sense on
all levels. It is the same image that individual users aspire and perform
and that companies rent for their events. The marginalization of food both
in the architecture of the place and on the web indicates the fear of the
grotesque character of food which would contradict the coolness-paradigm.
The absence of food proves the legitimacy of my discourse. In the
Cybercafe the playfulness of the unbodily theatricality replaces the
playfulness of the food-computer relationship of the Mega-Bite. 


2) Mega-Bite
On West 45th Street there is a place called The Original Boychicks. It is
fast-food restaurant serving pizza, sushi, salads and middle eastern
specialties. The combination is far above average. What makes the place
special is that it is the only 100% kosher place offering this variety.
But what used to make the place really special was the fact that exactly
the same place used to be a cybercafe, or more appropriate, a
cyber-restaurant. Unfortunately (for my research) in January 1998 the
owner changed from Eli Zarifa, who cooperated with Howard Jonas IDT
(International Direct Communication, the neighboring computer company and
internet-provider) to a private owner after eighteen months of successful
business. The new owner skipped the cyber-aspect for several reasons.
According to Irving, the old and new chef, the new owner is not in favor
of computers and has got no experience with them. In addition to that the
actual profit was not worth the expenses of software-rights and
internet-access which were covered by the old owner, IDT. It would be
interesting for further research to find out more about why a
telecommunication company decided to open a cybercafe. Howard Jonas claims
that it was founded because of the lack and need of such a place (26). I
rather suppose that the enterprise had the quality / notion of a playful
experiment. 
Irving, introduced by his colleagues as This is Mega-Bite told me
everything about the cyber-restaraunt he used to run, because he still is
very committed to the idea of cybercafes. His nostalgia made it hard to
tell how successful the place really was. Now having 99% Jewish customers
mostly at the peak hours at noon and around 6:00 pm, the place had a more
diverse crowd at all times of the day. Many school classes came over to
experience computers in a more relaxed surrounding and many tourists,
especially from neighboring hostels, checked their e-mail. Different from
all other places I know of (internationally) Mega-Bite charged not
necessarily the time the customer was computing. Access to one of the 8
terminals (!) was free for half an hour with the purchase of food for 5$.
This meant that everybody who was computing was also eating and drinking.
This cyber-restaurant would have been close to the grotesque concept I
developed before. Irving used to observe carefully the eating habits of
the users and is very eloquent about it. He is very emotional about the
loss of the computers-part:

My opinion: I would keep it. It was the salt in the pot. It had historical
value. It was the only place like this in the entire world. And you were
part in it...I used to be a school teacher; I appreciate historical
value.(27)
Still he is aware of the problems the place had to face. The cafe had no
one hired to advice people. There was no trained service personnel to help
the customers. So many of them were frustrated. Many of the customers were
depending on help since they didnt have their own computer. Irving would
have had the knowledge, but he was too busy as chef. A rather technical
problem was the very frequent defect of hardware due to crumbs and drops
of the masses of food consumed in front of the computers. The most
interesting analogy of food and computers in this place was that BOTH were
kosher. The access to web-pages was coded and blocked. The religious
supervisor Rabbi Weberman explained the Mega-Bite policy:

"We don't allow anything on the Internet that doesn't go according to
Torah. ...
Just like the food has to be clean, the Internet has to be clean too. You
have a clean body and a clean mind."(28)
It would be very speculative to suppose this to be limiting or increasing
the number of customers. The extension of  kosherness to the internet is
definitely rather a symbolical act to emphasize the feeling of home for
religious Jewish customers. 
The place was limiting the playfulness of ordinary cybercafes by having a
ruled environment with the character of enforcement. The customer had to
order food, it was ruled food and the computer did not allow free surfing
neither. At the same time it allowed a maximum of freedom of people who
would have to be cautious of their activities in a non-kosher environment.
The Mega Bite cafe is the closest to the grotesque, not because it had a
name playing with words and the analogy of food and computers, but it had
a structural link between the two by almost enforcing people to consume
food at the computer. The notion of the grotesque is strongly associated
with playfulness which overshadows the rigor of the kosherness.


3) The Internet Cafe

Surf And Ye Shalt Find Food! (http://www.bigmagic.com)
The Internet Cafe follows a completely different strategy. The logo
appears in full basic colors, rather two-dimensional design. There is no
coherent logo, sometimes the name of the cafe is surrounded by a red oval.
All sub-pages are introduced with a logo that is a comic-drawing. The
child-book like appearance create intimacy and familiarity. Everything is
easy and accessible. The majority of sub-pages  / icons are food related
(!). Four out of seven drawings show edible items. We got Cakes, Drinks,
Coffee, Access, Creative, Cool and Sandwiches. There are no technical
terms involved. The text provided is relatively confusing and out of
order. There are quotations and mottoes all over the place. Surf and Ye
Shall Find is even trade-marked. In the self description there is an
emphasis on the expert assistance in a warm and relaxed setting, the best
and freshest coffee in New York, the music played and the games offered .
Quite openly they declare:

We designed the Cafe to welcome the user to the Internet and to be an
antitode to the sterile, intimidating environments that people often
associate with new technology.
Like the Cybercafe or Kinkos. And its open to total computer beginners,
who dont even get bored, because there are checkers etc. The
computer-aspect gets marginalized by food, music and games. The menu is
the biggest part of the site, the sandwiches are listed in a table with
the name of the sandwich, a detailed description and the price. The names
are terms of the computer-lingo, from hypertext (fresh mozzarella, basil &
sun-dried tomatoes with greens, dijon mustard & internet vinaigrette,
whatever that is), yahoo (goat cheese...), to on-line art (Roquefort,
sweet butter & baguette with wedges of sliced ripe pear) and many others.
This is thematizing the serious, the technical. They literally make the
computer-world digestible, accessible, devourable. According to the
grotesque logic of Bakhtin one can internalize net basics (our own mix of
red & green lettuces...) - the otherwise hostile world. 
Its fun-making - with the serious aim of lowering the threshold of new
technology and the Internet Cafe. Although the main targeting group seems
to be beginners I would strongly doubt this in case of the web-page which
exclusively is read by Internet-surfers - who have done the first step.
Its rather the fun of simplifying the complicated or re-designing the
image of a hostile world. The Internet Cafe offers a home to the
web-traveler, in both worlds and senses - in a virtual cafe and an actual
one. The home-page is emphasizing the cafe-aspect rather than selling an
abstract image of coolness. Though it is promoting familiarity and
simplicity, it is done in direct relation to the actual cafe. Food is the
central element in this strategy. There is no visual or textual
representation of the music, the program or the games. Food in this
context represents anti-expertise, egalite and simple pleasure.

The Internet Cafe in Real Life
Almost hidden on East 3rd Street between First and Second Avenue there is
the smallest venue I did my fieldwork on. Its a long and narrow tube in
the basement. The tables are organized along the wall, one aisle is
leading from street to the bar in the rear and to the back yard. The
ceiling is low and the lamps are dimmed down with paper covering them. The
walls are in brown and dark green. The furniture is not uniform, some
chairs could have been found on street.  There is only four computers - so
most tables dont have computers. There are two shelves at the wall with
magazines, newspapers and lots of books, both fiction and computer
literature. In one shelf there are several board games and playing cards.
In the bar area there is a TV hanging underneath the ceiling. It was on
whenever I went there. The bar area has no relationship to
computer-technology, but there is a professional sound-system.
Visually it is the total opposite to the Cybercafe. It rather looks like a
bar, with some computers. The computers are the only new-looking objects
in a rather unspectacular or almost trashy space. 
Arthur Perley opened the cafe as the first cybercafe in Spring 1995. He is
very open and eloquent about his place. When he first opened the place he
hardly served food, but customers demanded that and so he started with a
huge variety of sandwiches and salads. He would love to be able to offer
more, but there is no space for a kitchen. During the history of the place
the customers changed. This is related to both the changed strategy and
the increased computerization of the customers. Still there is a
significant group of people from the neighborhood and friends being
frequent and stable customers. During my visit I could observe some elder
people who came for a beer and a chat with the bar-tender. They didnt look
like they would ever touch a computer and indeed, they didnt.
In the early phase, says Perley, most customers came to learn about and to
experience the Internet.. Now its still 2/3 of the day-time customers
coming to compute or accompanying computing friends. At night its only 1/8
who are at the computers. This is one of the reasons Perley increased the
evening program to a daily standard. Every night there is either a
jazz-concert, a reading or a screening.  This and the beer license (they
are serving 12 different beers!) were the major changes in the history of
the place. In the beginning the place was more like a computer-school, but
now this happens less often. Still there are customers who are new to
computers or the Internet. I am a guide to the internet(Perley), rather
than to computers. Once people now how to browse they need assistance
where to surf. We promise hand holding for free. Apparently the didactic
trick is sense of humor even in describing the service of teaching and
helping people. When asked about the Cybercafe Perley is trying to be
neutral, emphasizing how different they are. Its a Starbucks with
computers. For his place balance is important:

The place is not about computers, but to be. We are a cafe - not a
computer store... We got games, newspapers, magazines, books...
Computers are not the point - people read, write, eat 
- all these activities they can do with and without a computer.(32)
Computers simply provide a mirror-image of whats done in a classic third
place anyway. Later Perley describes computers as necessity:
 
Why shouldnt customers expect internet-access like a payphone? Its a
service we provide, because people do it (using a computer). We were ahead
of it, but it got normal now.(32)
The cafe has a backyard which he calls our tech-free zone. This indicates
the computer-critical attitude in the cafes concept.
There has been a shift from the hipness and the avant-garde to the normal,
which is not admitted at the Cybercafe. The Internet Cafe substitutes the
hipness and the hype with relaxed, unspectacular normality of computers.
The spectacular is shifted to the stage and the screen, having events in
the evenings. Perley loves talking about the jazz-part of his cafe, which
is rooted in his personal interest in jazz. He is proud, that the place
got a name in the avant-garde-jazz scene, so that he gets demo-tapes every
day. He admits that he sometimes looses money with the concerts. But the
joy he gets is worth him the effort. His aim is to link the program more
with the internet, to become a virtual cafe more and more. Ideally he can
convey the concerts on the internet as well. This project is still in the
developing phase. He is already advising others with video-conferencing
technology. Next to the virtual cafe he is planning to open another,
bigger place with a kitchen. Arthur Perley has a very interesting
background. He is trained as an actor (!) and photographer, but worked
most of his life as computer counselor for banks and insurance. He is
still doing that. In addition he is teacher at Infotech / NYU, where he
teaches internet technology. He wrote the Kids guide to the internet and
is available on video-lectures on the topic. Recently he does more and
more counseling for radio and television to get their web-sites set up.
The Internet Cafe provides web-sites for many companies and organisations,
mainly in the East Village. By talking to all different types of customer,
the ordinary users in the cafe, the neighborhood organizations and the
companies he is counseling for he gains a huge knowledge about the
man-computer-interface and how human beings and net-works interact. He is
aware of the fact that he uses his theater-training as a teacher. I like
to add that the close observing of the customers can be rooted in the
theater background as well. He is conscious about the opportunity to study
his customers. He is very eloquent about the playful character he is and
his place has got because of that: 

I am really enjoying this. The cafe will never make me rich - its paying
itself...
This place is like a playground or a sandbox for me.
I want to experiment with the place anyway.(32)
Though he is modest about the economic success of his concept for the sake
of the cafe itself it seems to be a well working concept in the wider
logic of the owners multi-focal professional life. The striking part to me
is that personal interest and professional life inspire each other, merge
to a fusion which is appreciated by everybody. The cafe is meeting point
and office for Perleys other jobs as well as it is experiment and living
room for him. If the place would look more technological or if computers
would play a more important role, I would suppose that the food-presence
in the cafe would be as strong as it is in the virtual cafe. Since the
room has not a strong presence of technology anyway there is no need to
emphasize the food-aspect either. The personal focus of Perley explains
the anti-elitist and low-threshold philosophy of the Internet Cafe. The
values of balance and relaxation are not only formally present in the
virtual version of the cafe and represented by the interior design (or
rather the lack of it) of the place, but lived by the owner as well. Thus
the place is playful in all respects, and as part of that food is engaged
playfully in the menue and on the web.

Conclusion
Towards a Fourth Place
In The Great Good Place Ray Oldenburg is not modeling an ideal but an
Utopia. The more he adds up characteristics of third places the less
likely they are to exist. Though they allow all kinds of activity
Oldenburg ranks these activity in their appropriateness to the concept. So
third places may serve as political or intellectual forum, and they even
may be work places. He does mention a range of different activities
performed at third places, but he strongly emphasizes:

If conversation is not just the main attraction but the sine qua non of
the third place, it must be better there and, indeed it is.(33)
With this logic the idealistic proclamation becomes a measurement of
quality. Places, cafes etc., become evaluated as much as the other
activities at these places. This leads Oldenburg to an interesting trick,
when he describes the important issue of playing and games, even dividing
games into good and bad concerning their influence on the golden calf
conversation: 

As there are agencies and activities that interfere with conversation, so
there are those that aid and encourage it. Third places incorporate these
activities and may even emerge around them. To be more precise,
conversation is a game that mixes well with many other games according to
the manner in which they are played.(34)...
The game is conversation and the third place is its home court.(35)
If cybercafes are about individuals mute to other customers but very
communicative to friends and strangers alike in IRCs or via e-mail - is
conversation their main purpose to visit a cybercafe? How many
conversations are caused by the attraction of computers? How many are
suppressed by them?

The lure of a third place depends only secondary upon seating, ...variety
of beverages...other features. What attracts the regular visitor to a
third place is supplied not by the management but by the fellow customers.
The third place is just as much space unless the right people are there to
make it come alive.(36)
Computers and food belong to these other features, I guess. According to
Oldenburgs rigid model cybercafes may only be called third places when
computers - or food - stimulate more conversation than they prevent. And
people shouldnt come there because of them but the talk around them. I
disagree with the rigor of his model because it limits the playfulness of
third places. The absoluteness of these places is in no relation with the
informality which I see as a much more intriguing quality. Exactly the
playfulness of the whole place and the chance to emerge conversations is
what makes it different from other places. The potential is what makes it
potent. To say it with the Bauman definition used above, postmodernity is
against fixation of identity (37). The model Oldenburg is describing is
very clear and hierachial - and fixating, therefore limiting. His approach
to conversation-enforcement places is modern, not postmodern.
Ironically he could be used against himself when he writes :

The persistent mood of third places is a playful one....The magic of
playground is seductive... (quoting Huizinga) Because the feeling of being
apart together in an exceptional situation ...rejecting the usual norms,
retains its magic beyond the 
duration of the individual game.(38)
He uses Huizingas concept of playfulness exclusively for the actual play
of games or the - according to his standards - superior game of
conversation. He does not understand the choice of different activities as
a more important play. This meta-game of playing with the different
services and identities of a multi-focal cafe like cybercafes is what I
consider to be central. I totally agree with the concept of the magic of
the playground(39), but I refuse from limiting this to the quality of
single activities within themselves but like to extend it to the play
between the different activities. 
Caillois is broadening Huizingas concept of the function of play as a
contest for something or a representation of something (40) when defining
play as...essentially free...and uncertain: the course of which cannot be
determined,...and some latitude for innovations being left to the players
initiative(41). In his classification of four different categories two of
them are according to Huizingas concept, agon (contest) and mimicry
(representation). More attention should be paid to his fourth category:
ilinx. Ilinx is Greek for vertigo. It 

consists of an attempt to momentarily destroy the stability of
perception...The disturbance that provokes vertigo is commonly sought for
its own sake.(42)  It is exactly the vertigo of cyberspace and the
potential information over-load of cybercafes that attract its customers.
It is the playing with perception for its own sake. There is no rules any
more. The fourth category of games sounds like a prophecy of
Bunjee-jumping and net-surfing. And it perfectly allows me to call the
Internet Cafe a play in itself, which is made out of classic games,
boardgames, conversation as a game, computer games, playfully named food
and a variety of activities.  The too-much of potential activities can
disturb the perception - which is a play with its own sake. Due to their
modern fascination with construction of identity mono-culture-cybercafes
have a fatal deficit of this kind of playfulness. They are the ones
described in the recent NY Times article and they are the bankrupt ones. I
am on the opinion that the lack of this kind of playfulness at the
Cybercafe is substituted at least by an aesthetic play of coolness
allowing the customer to play theater - rather than to play with different
activities.  The Internet Cafe is both a perfect third place in terms of
Oldenburg, since it does allow a lot of conversation and a lot of
conversation is caused by the presence of computers. A lot of
conversations were about computers, but not necessarily. And people go
there to communicate with their neighbors - independent from the computer
aspect of the cafe. In addition to that it is more than an
Oldenburg-place, since it offers the play of choice of activities for the
visitors. The foremost quality of a playground in the literal sense is
that kids may choose the play; they play with choices.  The Internet Cafe
expands the model of play from the user / customer to the place itself.
Arthur Perley is a player in and with his cafe, conceptually and on a
daily base. The opportunity to play is inscribed in the structure of the
place - guaranteed by the playfulness of the owner.  The role of food and
how it is strategically involved on the cafes web-page is an obvious
example for his playfulness. Striking about role of playfulness in the
concept of the cafe is its ambivalence. The playful treatment of food is
both strategically employed and fun for funs sake. For Bauman In the
confrontation between the player and the world there are neither laws nor
lawlessness, neither order nor chaos.(43) (remember:  the player is one of
his models for post-modern existence). Unfortunately he contradicts
himself when he explains the character of play linked with risk and the
fascination of intuitive reach for luck(43). This is another limiting
concept, implying rules on another level. If the player was really beyond
order and chaos, he would not depend on the aim of reaching luck. Since I
perceive the fascination of play exactly in the opportunity for risk, luck
and fun as much as in their lack. This is close to Cailloiss vertigo. The
player at the cybercafe is playing not to win a game but to find a playful
way of satisfying his perception. And so is the owner-as-a-player: his
play is not primarily to win money or customers but a problematic - since
playful - combination of experience and joy.  Since there is no category
given for places like the Internet Cafe I like to call it a fourth place.
Fourth places are playgrounds allowing playfulness in terms of choice of
the desired activity. This can be valid for both, customer and owner. The
activities of fourth places are not limited to the rules evoked by
categories of the former three places. So they can include the qualities
of home, work, public space, conversation, game-playing and interactive
tele-communication. The predominant concept of the place is the permission
of as many different activities and services as possible while at the same
time a maximum imposing a maximal limit of single central features. Fourth
places can be called post-modern cafes. They are embracing new technology
as much as cafe-classics like food and beverages - without ranking their
importance.. The discourse of the grotesque in the relationship between
the components food and computers can indicate playfulness. Since the
character of this discourse is its optionality, it cannot serve as
defining element. Although two of the studied venues (Mega-Bite and
Internet-Cafe) proved the feasibility of staging food as part of the
grotesque discourse, the effect must not be enforced, because this would
contradict the ambivalence and playfulness of a fourth place. 



New York, April 1998


Notes
(1) Arthur Perley, personal interview, 17.4.1998
(2) www.cyber-cafe.com
(3) Michail Bakhtin in The Bachtin Reader edited by Yam Morris, Arnold
Publishers 1994
(4) Michel Marrott Ballad of the Cybercafe: Crossover Hit Abroad, NY
Times, 4/16th 1998 
(5) Ray Oldenburg The Great Good Place - Cafes, coffee shops, community
centers, beauty parlors, general stores, bars, hangouts and how they get
you through the day, New York 89/97
(6) Oldenburg, p.XVIII
(7) Oldenburg, p.IX
(8) Oldenburg, p.XIV
(9) Zygmunt Bauman in From Pilgrim to Tourist in Questions of Cultural
Identity, edited by 
        Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay, London 1996, p.18
(10) Jane Levere in Cyberbooths Offer E-Mail for Travelers in New York
Times, 6..6.1996
(11) Bauman, p.27
(12) Henning Bech in Living together in the (post)modern world, paper
given at the European  
        Conferece of Sociology, Vienna in 1992
(13) Bauman, p.29
(14) Marrott
(15) Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett in Spaces of Dispersal in Cultural
Anthropology 9 (3) 
(16) Bakhtin, p.228
1994
(17) Bakhtin, p.228
(18) Timothy Leary http://www.leary.com  1996
(19) Mihail Csikszentmihaly Beyond Boredom and Anxiety, San Francisco,
1975
(20) Bakhtin, p.228
(21) Bauman, p.30
(22) Ralph Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origin of a Social
Beverage in the Medieval 
       Near East, Seattle 1985
(23) www.cyber-cafe.com
(24) Max Schumacher in Assyrians in Cyberspace - diaspora on the internet,
paper for May 
        Josephs class Postmodern Theory and Theater, New York University,
Fall term 1997
(25) Wolfgang Welsch in Information Super highway, 1994 
        in http://www.uni-magdeburg.de/~iphi/ww/papers/highway.htm
(26) in Pamela Mendels Where Food and Surfing Are Kosher, New York Times,
11.8.1997
(27) personal interview, 5.4.1998
(28) Mendels
(29) personal interview, 28.3.1998
(30) www.cyber-cafe.com
(31) www.cyber-cafe.com
(32) personal interview, 17.4.1998
(33) Oldenburg, p.28
(34) Oldenburg, p.30
(35) Oldenburg, p.31
(36) Oldenburg, p.33
(37) Bauman, p.19
(38) Johan Huizinga in Homo Ludens: A Study of Play Elements in Culture,
Boston 1950 
(39) Oldenburg, p.38
(40) Huizinga, p.13
(41) Roger Caillois in Man, Play, Games, Free Press of Glencoe 1961, p.9
(42) Caillois, p.23
(43) Bauman, p.31

Bibliography

www.cyber-cafe.com

Bakhtin, Michail     
The Bakhtin Reader edited by Pam Morris, Arnold Publishers 1994

Bauman, Zygmunt 
From Pilgrim to Tourist in Questions of Cultural Identity,
edited by Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay, London 1996, p.18

Bech, Henning     
Living together in the (post)modern world, paper given at the European
Conferece of Sociology, Vienna in 1992

Caillois, Roger     Man, Play, Games, Free Press of Glencoe 1961

Csikszentmihaly, Mihail      Beyond Boredom and Anxiety, San Francisco,
1975

Hattox, Ralph 
Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origin of a Social Beverage in
the Medieval Near East, Seattle 1985

Huizinga, Johan      Homo Ludens: A Study of Play Elements in Culture,
Boston 1950 

Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara     Spaces of Dispersal in Cultural
Anthropology 9 (3) 1994

Leary, Timothy, http://www.leary.com  1996

Jane Levere     Cyberbooths Offer E-Mail for Travelers in New York Times,
6.6.1996

Marrot, Michelt     Ballad of the Cybercafe: Crossover Hit Abroad, NY
Times, 4/16th 1998 

Mendels, Pamela     Where Food and Surfing Are Kosher, New York Times,
11.8.1997

Oldenburg, Ray 
The Great Good Place - Cafes, coffee shops, community
centers, beauty parlors, general stores, bars, hangouts and how they get
you through the day, New York 1989 / 1997

Schumacher, Max Assyrians in Cyberspace - diaspora on the internet, paper
for May Josephs class Postmodern Theory and Theater, New York University,
Fall term 1997, www.benecke.com/ambition

Welsch, Wolfgang Information Superhighway, 1994 in
http://www.uni-magdeburg.de/~iphi/ww/papers/highway.htm