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Comment by shalmanese | Hacker News Reader

A German Coffee shop is innovating with a new model where the coffee is free but you are charged for the time you spend: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/28/slow-time-cafe-germ...

This seems like an interesting way to keep the incentives more aligned.

Personally, I wish there was a more socially acceptable way to just rent space at a coffee shop. I don't drink caffeine and I often need to find a place to crash for 2 hours which means either I buy a high calorie pastry/juice that I don't really need to be eating or I feel like an asshole the entire time I'm there. It'd be far easier for me if I could just drop $4 in a jar and have that cover my time.

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What you need is a Bring Your Own Computer Internet café.

10 years ago, I hanged out a lot in internet cafés, and loved it. There was definitely something cool about it: hanging out with tech-savvy people, using beastly machines on powerful internet connections, exploring the exponentially exploding internet, playing games, ... It was a very social experience, and I befriended a few other regulars there.

I do miss the ambiance of these cafés, and I wish that laptops, better internet connections (the days of 56k are long gone) and ubiquitous free WiFi hadn't killed that kind of business.

There's potential for a revival of internet cafés, though. Good Wifi, preinstalled docks for common laptops, smartly arranged space (to avoid spilling coffee on your precious laptop because you accidentally pulled a cable !) and a different pricing model, you could attract easily the horde of Starbucks and McDonald's "laptop hobos"...

Yes! I totally agree! It doesn't even have to be intended as a coffee shop - just like a coworking space where I can show up, plug my laptop in to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, sit down at a comfy office chair and desk, and work for a few hours. Would gladly pay for that service.

I've played with the idea of doing this using shipping containers. Search out "shipping container cafes".

One of the reasons why I never invested in an external monitor at home was that I spend most of my time working in coffee shops.

Such a coworking space with external monitors and good coffee would be heaven.

Search for co-working spaces in your area. Most have an annual fee (I believe the one closest to my house charges $500 for the year) and are exactly what you described.

Really? I live in the Bay Area and the ones that I've seen have pretty poor amenities. Even rather famous ones like Hacker Dojo look like just some cheap tables and chairs thrown together.

I can't help you there. I'm in Indianapolis, and there are a number of nice spaces. One of them is a bit grungy, but it's part of its charm.

A Russian cafe Ziferblat has been doing just that in Russia for two years already. The model was pioneered by a very passionate and modest guy called Vanya Mitin.

Actually, the article mentions it:

>Owner Daria Volkova, 24, was inspired by similar cafes in Russia, where she is originally from.

I don't want to sound mean; it's just that Vanya Mitin did really exciting things here and a lot of copycats used his model (which is of course how market works). Kudos to Daria for mentioning where the idea comes from.

What's wrong with the library?

ssssh! ...We're closing.

> It'd be far easier for me if I could just drop $4 in a jar and have that cover my time.

There is a place like that here in Stockholm. But it's $40 for a full day (250 kr, 8 hours) and $10 for a single hour. Your $4 would be good for 30 minutes or so. Rent is incredibly high in central areas in which coffee shops need to be located to attract customers and is the primary reason why their coffee is so expensive.

Unsurprisingly, this place is mostly deserted and all the laptop hobos camp out in the nearby restaurants and cafés. You can even see them during the lunch hours with their stupid iMacs, iPads and white earphones plugged in, pretending not to notice that all the other tables are occupied and there is a line to the cash register. Often they are sitting by themselves at the four or six-seater tables instead of smaller tables which steals even more space.

AFAICT, many coworking spaces have similar models: you pay for your chair and free coffee is available. But something calling itself a coffee shop is probably set up much differently than something modeled around an office...

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