308 Mediated Publics
cybercafés, however, are located on the second or third floors of mixed-
use residential-commercial buildings. These sites provide an interesting
form of virtual domestic experience since the space is evocative of the
interior structure of an apartment. While guidebooks may give tourists
information on a few places to connect, residents are privy through word
of mouth to the whereabouts of the numerous other cybers nestled into
mixed-use buildings throughout the city’s neighborhoods.
Cybercafés in Casablanca all share certain interior features, but the
décor varies depending on the type of space in which they are located.
Storefront cybers and those in renovated apartment units often have
bright fluorescent lighting that conjures a sterilized environment simi-
lar to what one might find in a university computer lab. Other cybers,
housed in re-outfitted underground garages or (more rare) standalone
buildings, tend to have “mood” lighting, creating a lounge aura more
akin to the mellow ambience of traditional coffeehouses.^29 Almost all
cybercafés post signs to indicate their hours of operation and the price of
services. This is also distinct from the norm in traditional coffeehouses,
where hours of operation are rarely indicated.^30 By looking at a sign on
the wall, an Internaut can learn the fee per half hour (5 dirham) or per
hour (7–10 dh)^31 and the price penalty for going five minutes past a half
or full hour of use.
The furniture in cybers is typically reminiscent of business offices or
professional school computer centers that have small cubicle partitions
mounted on desktops. Chairs are notoriously uncomfortable, often lack-
ing any semblance of a cushion. Aside from computers, desks and chairs,
there is very little else in the way of furnishings. While cybers do not have
staffed coffee bars, many do have soda machines, and some also have
vending machines that dispense hot drinks like Nescafé cappuccinos and
lattes into Styrofoam cups. None of the cybers I visited had any of the
options for snacks or teas that one finds in traditional cafés.
espite this apparent sterility, however, the overall atmosphere of D
the cybers is made buoyant by the Internauts, who engage each other as
much as they do the computers before them. Though visitors to cybers
spend at least half their café time facing forward at computer screens,
there is a great deal of socializing between visitors. Cybergoers often come
to a café in pairs or groups. It is not uncommon to see two or three people