While clicking through the various other Seattle area coffee blogs, searching for inspiration this morning, I came across an interesting debate. That was, should there be WiFi in coffee shops? The first thing I thought was "Yeah of course there should be!" I mean if people couldn't access the internet in coffee shops how would they get any work done there, but then it occurred to me (mostly because I read more of the blog posts and understood the argument better). Maybe people shouldn't be going to coffee shops to "get work done". A coffee shop should be a place of COMMUNITY interaction.(that is, local community not web community)
When WiFi first became available to the public, coffee shops were naturally one of the original public WiFi spaces. I mean who doesn't want to sip their coffee and cruise the web, read blogs and check out whats happening around town. However, these days free WiFi is everywhere. You can get it in McDonald's with your BigMac for Pete's sake. (who is pete anyway)
So now some of our local coffee shops are championing a return to the simpler, WiFi-less times. Some of these crazy places think that people in their shops should be meeting each other, talking and sharing stories FACE TO FACE. An outrageous idea I know, but it is one that might catch on.
One of the problems with this is that a lot of customers do not want to go to coffee shops without free WiFi. So when these shops ax the internet they are also axing a good chunk of their customer base.
It's hard to say if a coffee shop would be better with or without internet access. In my opinion people would be better if they could just turn off the computer every once and awhile and talk to their neighbor face to face. In my experience, however, this might just be wishful thinking to the point of foolishness.
Anyway here is a video which sums up pretty much everything I just said.
Enjoy
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