by Harold McMillan

Greetings from DiverseArts World Headquarters.

This is our last issue for the year 2000. And, geeze, what a year this one has been! The new century, the new economy, new ways of connecting the arts and technology, and for a lot of people, new concern about the direction of quality of life issues for Austin. In our pages this month are bits and pieces of our take on these changing times. Art meets technology, the old Austin moving over to accommodate the digital Austin.

There is friction here: some folks see us at the dawning of new good times, others mourn the lost of the old, analogue Austin. Although most of what you read here embraces the new, I think the jury is still out on just how the cultural soul of Austin will fare, as it is effected more and more by high tech power brokers.

Globally, the high tech revolution will continue to give the arts world more and more cool new gadgets and innovative technological tools.

Locally, I fear that the tech invasion just might make Austin into a soul-less town too expensive for artists to survive.