The Nomad Cafe

The Nomad Cafe is a great little neighborhood cafe that also resembles a computer lab, so many people use laptop computers. It's a typical morning at Oakland's Nomad Cafe. Jazz hangs in the background. Neighbors clutching travel mugs amble in past posters touting Barack Obama and fair-trade coffee. A flyer of upcoming events includes a night of "subterranean world-core."
It's old news that iMacs have replaced Bics on coffeehouse tables, and that some folks treat cafes as home offices away from home. But the Nomad shows how pervasive the fusion of local and global has become. People want a scene of their own and worldwide access all at once, so of course there's free Wi-Fi.