Idea Center

In the not too distant future, Cyber Cafes are heading for a big change. Their business models will have to tune to work even when last mile connectivity is available to everyone.

Today, this is what a Cyber Cafe looks like (one that might even allow gaming;) Irrespective of where in the world you might be going to look for one, you could be assured that small partitions like the one shown, standard terminals are to be expected. Some allow headphones, others let you use speakers.

Here are the pressing problems that the future Cybercafes could solve in the future. Before jumping in, you might even like to give Maverick and Seven Day Weekend a read for concepts of extremely flexible work environments.

Commuting, as urban population and business increases is not going to be a norm for many roles at the workplace. 

The Cybercafe will

• Double up as the flexible office at which people can meet up and work in smaller groups
• Allow for higher bandwidth applications such as group video conferences with multiple individuals
• Start evolving into data-centers that can securely store user data with trust
• Provide for specialized support staff to create company presentations and corporate documents
• Charge individuals or groups based on bandwidth consumed over a week rather than daily for better customer relationships. (While this might seem naive, it is an idea that is already in vogue.)
• Provide better processing power than available at offices using special cluster equipment for those rendering graphics or checking out applications for demonstrations.

There could be themed Cybercafes that will

• Provide special gaming-centric facilities including Wheels, Keypads, access to Gameboys and all the gaming gadgets of the future.
• Ones that provide virtual music concerts by giving the user a feel of being in a true music concert while they are unable to attend the actual concert (possibly because they are 100s of miles away.)
• Provide more corporate centric solutions like meeting rooms that can transcribe conversations alongwith video conferencing faclilities.
• Couple special touring facilities with the ability to check e-mail and book their tour timings with a tourist-centric adaptation.
  

The flexible office is a more inviting idea based on the demographics they currently cater to. This would be revenue that they can rely on. Further this would also mean that IT infrastructure of the office is getting outsourced and easily accessible to the employees by a distributed system that can also remain a profit center. This is one step beyond work from home.

Themed Cybercafes could spawn for any special need that can be catered. In a tourist city one could expect this to be a tourist hot spot. In a city where the majority are white collar workers, with both parents working, children might like to game outside in groups as they return from school or as a weekend activity. The possibilities again depend on the demographic and the actual demand.