Coffee House as Internet
Ghetta Life
ghetta_outta at hotmail.com
Mon Dec 29 12:38:16 CST 2003
http://www.economist.com/World/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2281736
Coffee fuelled the information exchanges of the 17th and 18th centuries
WHERE do you go when you want to know the latest business news, follow
commodity prices, keep up with political gossip, find out what others think
of a new book, or stay abreast of the latest scientific and technological
developments? Today, the answer is obvious: you log on to the internet.
Three centuries ago, the answer was just as easy: you went to a
coffee-house. There, for the price of a cup of coffee, you could read the
latest pamphlets, catch up on news and gossip, attend scientific lectures,
strike business deals, or chat with like-minded people about literature or
politics.
The coffee-houses that sprang up across Europe, starting around 1650,
functioned as information exchanges for writers, politicians, businessmen
and scientists. Like today's websites, weblogs and discussion boards,
coffee-houses were lively and often unreliable sources of information that
typically specialised in a particular topic or political viewpoint. They
were outlets for a stream of newsletters, pamphlets, advertising free-sheets
and broadsides. Depending on the interests of their customers, some
coffee-houses displayed commodity prices, share prices and shipping lists,
whereas others provided foreign newsletters filled with coffee-house gossip
from abroad.
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