An
internet café or
cybercafé is a place where one can use a computer with
Internet access, most for a fee, usually per hour or minute; sometimes one can have unmetered access with a pass for a day or month, etc. It may serve as a regular
café as well, with food and drinks being served.
The online cafe phenomenon was started in July 1991 by Wayne Gregori in San Francisco when he began SFnet Coffee House Network. Gregori designed, built and installed 25 coin operated computer terminals in coffee houses throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The cafe terminals dialed into a 32 line Bulletin Board System that offered an array of electronic services including FIDOnet mail and, in 1992, Internet mail. See SFnet Press Archive
The internet cafe concept and name, Cybercafé, was invented at the beginning of 1994 by Ivan Pope. Commissioned to develop an Internet event for an arts weekend at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, and inspired by the SFnet terminal based cafes, Pope wrote a proposal outlining the concept of a café with Internet access from the tables. The event was run over the weekend of 12-13 March 1994 during the 'Towards the Aesthetics of the Future' event.
In June 1994, The Binary Cafe, Canada's first Internet café, opened in Toronto, Ontario.
