Café Linux

Reader
Phillip Torrone
recently made a trip to Japan and got some serious hang time in
Akihabara,
Tokyo's electronics district, where he ran across
this
place here:

If you don't read Japanese, the
web site doesn't
explain much. But a English placard in the store does the job
nicely (the text is transcribed from one of Phillip's
photos):The Linux Cafe StoryLinux Cafe is a joint
project bringing together industry, government, academia and local
people. Linux Cafe was started by a group of Linux related
companies and realized with the cooperation of Chiyoda ward,
universities and trading associations in the Akihabara area.•Linux Cafe is a focus point
for new development within the city, a suggested model for the
revitalization of industry and a platform for cross-sector,
cross-cultural collaboration.•Linux Cafe is a meeting
place for anyone who wishes to stop by. Born of open source
culture, it is a space for learning and for play, a base for the
dissemination of information related to development of ideas for
new lifestyles.•Our greatest hope is that Linux
Cafe will become a place from which creativity and
entertainment flow, giving rise to new stories.Linux Cafe Founding Committee 3rd December 2001David Sifry,
co-founder of
LinuxCare and
Sputnik, lived in Japan
for many years and knows the language well. He adds this:I've met with some of the people responsible for setting this
up. They also are offering free 802.11b access within (and nearby)
the cafe, as well as free classes on Linux and other OSS
technologies.Good bunch of folks. And considering the cost of Akihabara
real estate, it's gotta be costing a reasonable amount of
money.By the way, the
Zaurus is historically
much more popular in Japan than in the US.This was consistent with Phillip's experience He
writes:There were also some other Linux goodies in Japan. The new
Sharp Zaurus units were all over the stores with pretty high
billing in terms of placement and sales folks pushing them. There
were smaller ones, bigger ones and ones with cameras--nothing like
that in the US (yet).On the other hand, the only PDA I saw anyone actually using
in the entire country (I looked all the time among the millions of
people we saw on the trains) was a Zaurus. It's not really a PDA
culture.So the next time you're in Akihabara (especially if you're
packing your Zaurus), you might want to be on the lookout for this
sign:

Doc Searls is senior editor
of Linux Journal.

email: doc@ssc.com