The purpose of Café9 is to provide a network-based social environment within which young people between the ages of 15 and 25 in Europe can creatively collaborate and communicate. Throughout this network young people may experience and take advantage of “virtual mobility”. They will be able to establish channels for dialogue and develop mutual understanding of others making use of new information technologies.
Café9 is a joint project of partners from Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, Sweden, Iceland, Czech Republic, and Norway. The project has started in June 1999, and it will finish in December 2000.
The project will be implemented by providing network venues and interactive services in seven European cities in the fall of 2000, using both existing and highly sophisticated information and telecommunications technologies. This socio-technological platform will be the foundation for a wide range of projects initiated by young people in collaboration with youth organizations. The conceptual starting point of the project is the European tradition of café culture.
The main objectives of the project are to (i) raise the understanding of and the interest in other cultures among young people, (ii) construct multilateral partnerships between participating youth-related organizations, (iii) acquire experience of innovative organizational and operational models that can be applied to similar projects in the future, (iv) provide possibilities to young people to initiate projects based on the Internet, both at a local and European level, (v) provide groups of young people a possibility to work as volunteers in the Café9 venues, and (vi) enable them to take an active role as advocates of their local culture within the Internet. In quantitative terms, the Café9 project aims to have at least 50,000 visitors the Café9 venues, 1,500,000 visitors in its web site, and 50 individual projects initiated and funded.
The project concept has five layers: (i) The network of participating organizations and people is the basis of the project, and operates as a pool of skills and resources; (ii) The physical infrastructure consists of a wide range of both traditional and highly sophisticated Internet-based technologies and applications integrated into a network of physical Café 9 venues in seven cities. Each venue has multimedia-PC´s, and a video broadcasting system to broadcast and receive content and live events between cities; (iii) Projects initiated by young people take place within the context of the above described infrastructure and network and (iv) Young people act as the project creators, hosts in the Café 9 venues, and as active participants in the projects initiated by other groups.
Audience participation is facilitated by the following means: Café9 venues are centrally located in each city making them easily accessible to young people; the Internet will be an integral part of the project, enabling global participation; every Café 9 venue will be hosted by a team of young people from the local community to lower the barriers of participation; the project will be highly visible in the promotional activities of the participating cities; local community and youth organizations will be integrated into the project in an early phase, and selected research organizations will be invited to participate in order to increase the exchange of skills and experiences.
The dissemination of the results will be guaranteed through a seminar and workshop held in November 2000, by publishing a guide of best practices, and documenting a wide variety of projects implemented by young people in the Café9 Web Portal.
