The heavenly aroma of roasted coffee beans float throughout the air in the toasty warm cafˇ. A young woman leans up against the counter and orders her usual nonfat decaffeinated lattˇ. Then, instead of grabbing a newspaper or talking to the man next to her, she clutches her quarters and heads for the nearest computer.
The woman slides her change into the terminal, resembling a 1980s Pac-Man game table, and types in her handle, or her code name. Today she will log on as "Mimia." She can't wait to go online and chat in the virtual cafe with her new-found friends, Mr. Potato Head, Bud Fairy and Conjo. And if she runs out of money before reaching all her cyberpals, Mimia can continue from home.
Mimia is part of a large system comprised of 1,500 netters from 25 local coffeehouses and home terminals. This system enables people from all walks of life to chat online before meeting each other.
These mini-machines are SF Net's entrance to the country's first coin-operated on-line computer network. Someone sipping a cup of java on Sutter Street at Yakety Yak could be talking to someone on Haight Street at the Horse ShoeŃall thanks to technology and a few cool beans.
SF Net users, which include homeless people, punk rockers and the thankfully employed, either subscribe for $7 a month or put 25 cents into the cafˇ terminals every four minutes. The only time netters can't socialize is between 4:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. when the system shuts down for maintenance, or when the mocha man shouts last call.
The coffeehouse network idea was born in Wayne and Jill Gregori's Noe Valley kitchen four years ago. The entrepreneurial couple became fed up with society and the way it isolates people. Their solution was to design a virtual space where people could be viewed on what they share, rather than by their physical characteristics. The result was SF Net.
Wayne Gregori chose to run his computer chat line via cafˇs due to the conversational atmosphere the coffeehouses possess.
"I think the beat generation still lives in the cafes. These people are looking for different ways and different thoughts," Gregori says. "It gives them access to each other in a network."
SF Net users chat about everything from cheese logs and roving dance parties to Friday nights at the local bar Noc Noc. Anonymity is exactly the thing that pulls people into the network. It is politically incorrect to ask about someone's gender or real name.
From a terminal in a cafˇ called Jammin' Java, Bryan Conjulusa has already spent about $6 chatting with friends. He doesn't own a computer, therefore he keeps very tight reign on his quarters. Every so often he runs across the street to the local laundromat to get more change.
"I'm meeting a lot of people, a lot of new faces and a lot of new words," Conjulusa says. "It kind of eliminates racism and sexism."
Jane Weirick, who charters planes for a living, spends five hours a day chatting on SF Net from her home in Hayward. Besides having two different handles herself, Weirick's 9-year-old daughter, roommate and neighbor, log on as well.
Weirick appreciates talking with a wide variety of people without having to leave her living room. "I'm up to almost 2,000 calls and that's just on one handle. I usually pick a new one every other month," Weirick says.
According to Brad Bulger, an SF Net user since 1992, there are very few places where one can go and meet people without the games of bars and clubs.
Twice a month SF Net's users organize parties, NetGets, where netters actually meet face to face. This might make anonymity pointless, but it actually adds an interesting twist to the action because cyberworld personalities may seem different from those in the real world.
"There are some people who are real jerks online. All they want to do is make a lot of noise. Then you meet them in person and they're absolutely not like that at all," Bulger says. "There's also the famous gender-shock phenomenon. That's always fun."
As for SF Net's future, Wayne Gregori plans to launch his network worldwide. By summer's end, SF Net will become a full-fledged node on the Internet, which means that in addition to chatting with someone across town, Bay Area netters will soon communicate with the rest of the United States, Europe and anywhere else their little computer heart desires.
Gregori promises that SF Net will always remain a very simple mechanism. "It's always going to focus on human interaction and hopefully be a springboard for community involvement."
Interested netters can obtain a free two-week trial subscription to SF Net by dialing (415) 824-8747 or by leaving a voice message for Wayne Gregori at (415) 695-9824.
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