Ever since the demise of the original GeoCities ethos of neighborhoods and community leaders, the left-behind leaders and followers of these pages have been working on what direction to point their efforts next. Here at Vienna Online, we are no different.

With each new issue, our dependence on being a GeoCities or Yahoo!GeoCities entity has diminished, while our reliance on our own contributions has increased. Unfortunately, the past year has also seen a diminishing in the time some of us have had to concentrate on our little volunteer zine. Add to that the fact that there are zillions of pages on the Internet dealing with practically everything, and that makes it hard to come up with unique subject matter quickly. But, thanks to the efforts of a new group of friends, the past couple of months have marked a quantum leap in the building of our own identity, and with it a hastening in the evolutionary direction of our changes.

Last month you began seeing on the top of our front page a link to "Poetry" by Lisa Gifford. We're proud to have her return this month, and look forward to each new poem she brings to us.

Also last month, you saw the initial offerings from Renate Mrus and her friends from Vienna Guides. This great group represents a huge warehouse of personal information about our namesake city. Their goal is to present themselves as guides to people of their native countries who come to visit them in their adopted city. From the look of it, they are headed for success.

Be looking soon for a new column from Renate, entitled "Vienna Events," which will list upcoming events in Vienna, as well as highlighting great sites within and about Vienna and Austrian lifestyle. The only thing slowing her fantastic work with us is...me. =] But together—and with Austrian Editor Florian and Associate Editor Keith—we're coming up with ways to facilitate ever-faster turnover for our English articles and the various translations.

So, along with the backbone of Florian's, Keith's, Paul's, Bill's, and Marg's musical influences and contributions, Vienna Online can look forward to a flurry of activity during the coming months. We have a long way to go, and lots of ideas to consider and develop. As we go along, you are invited to let us know what you think about changes we make, changes you'd like to see us make, changes you wish we hadn't made, etc. We hope you enjoy our efforts.