Starbucks vision behind the Third Place was to create a space between the home and the office which offered the sort of environment that had always been cherished in the best coffee houses through the years – a place to meet, to read, to debate and discuss, to be on your own. As Starbucks built their chain, independent cafes popped up to offer alternative takes on basically the same principles. (Watch this video from the PSFK Conference where George Murphy discusses the development of the Third Place concept).
Around the world we all started hanging more in cafes. But maybe that’s not going to last. Have you tried to sit in a cafe recently? You can’t there are hardly any seats and, certainly, no table space left!
The rise of the Bedouin Worker fueled by easy WiFi could be changing our view on the Third Place. In fact, they could be killing what we see as the Third Place and turning the cafe back to the Second Place. Go to a Starbucks or another cafe and its full of the creative class tapping away on their laptops. The only discussion being made seems to be on the phone with people in other cafes.
When we first held Likemind at sNice, we had so many people turn up I apologized to the owner, Mike, about taking over the place. Mike replied by saying that he was glad people had come in for a couple of hours to use the place as a cafe – not as their office. If the regular laptop users were miffed, he didn’t care.
The Bedouin Worker has so taken over his cafe that Mike now vigilantly restricts laptop use to two long tables at the weekend. Pull out a laptop at a 2-top on a Saturday and you’re out!
Maybe it’s time that Starbucks saves its Third Place. Instead of developing different brands offering basically the same thing (which will be inundated by the laptopers), maybe they should offer a modern version of the Second Place to keep the Bedouin Workers and the cafe dwellers happy and apart.
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To me, this just speaks to the power of our hard-wired impulse as humans to want to be near other humans–even if we’re not directly communicating with them. We’re pack animals, and feel more comfortable with warm bodies nearby.
But you’re entirely right. I only rarely hit the local cafes to work now for precisely the reason that I can never get a table. Plus, I was recently shushed when I was talking to another laptopper! In a *cafe* ! ! !
Something’ll come along, though.
April 28th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Exactly. Instead of trying to make something happen that is not happening naturally (the evolution of the Third Space). take advantage of what you have. Make the place more bedouin friendly and encourage interaction between bedouins (leads groups, IT courses, printers). In other words, make a Third Space out of the second space.
April 29th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
You’re right that Starbucks’ Third Space utopia risks takeover by laptoppers and phone-talkers … Probably a good explanation for why Starbucks charges (via T-Mobile) a pretty penny for Wi-Fi access.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
There are a growing number of ventures that are setting out precisely to create the “modern version of the second place” which in my opinion should be very third place like. In fact I called my first attempt at it Gate 3 WorkClub, as a reference to this hybrid phenomenon. I simply call my current effort WorkClub.
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:41 am