Andrey Martynov, whose main occupation is as a scientist, reported on his involvement in cultural exchange with the regional gallery Novosibirk and his work on their Internet presentation. He describes the difficulties and the lack of understanding he is confronted with. Despite this he has been able to successfully realize 2 projects: "ArCade II", together with an English and a Japanese artist, and "Living Faces", an exhibition and web presentation of contemporary Japanese graphics. However, the sites are in danger of being removed from the server next year, which is why he is currently searching for a new host. Estelita V. Llanita from the Philippines and Francisco Córdoba, reacted supportively to his contribution. Cordoba also considered the possibility of a project together. Nayda Collazo Llorens suggested that Martynov check out the offers for free web space.

Reinhold Wagnleitner from Austria once again emphasized the Internet's military origins to put a damper on the overly-optimistic expectations that the medium could be the "fulfillment of individual freedom". However, he mainly writes about the working group "History and Internet" he has just founded together with some colleagues at the University of Salzburg.

Art McGee sent in a compilation of links on resources "dealing with the intersection of ethnicity, culture, class, poverty, computers, and cyberspace."

Donna Hand-Lee and Jeff Lee presented "Trophies of Honor - Art Chronicles of Indigeous Peoples", "a project to chronicle and preserve native culture and art by presenting museum quality works on the Internet in exhibition form."

Manfred Ewel, former director of the Goethe Institute in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, opined "we should not neglect the necessity for personal encounters and expect the internet to bring people together instead". Up to this point in the debate, the importance of personal contacts was not under discussion at all. In view of such a forum, Ewel expressed skepticism, as "many people are already engaged in their specific spheres of interest and communication. They spend enough of their time on this and have no need for actively participating in a larger forum."

After Gerhard Haupt pointed out in a moderator's message that the forum only continued for another 3 weeks, Klaus Juergen Schmidt of Radio Bridge Overseas criticized this time limitation. Harald Friedl touched on this and asked the moderator to report on the difficulties of getting and keeping a net forum going over a longer period of time. With the online-magazine "zum Thema", he had had the experience that feedback is limited, even when dealing with delicate topics. "...internet - and the discussion about its meaning and consequences still is a (important!) question of those who can effort it - for those, who don't have the troubles how to survive the next day..." But, "to be well understood: The main subject of this forum is a very important one."

Gerhard Haupt answered this, among other things, with: "this forum was initiated to held a concentrated discussion on certain topics during a determined period. For the House of World Cultures it is a new form of continuing a far more comprehensive program of cultural exchange, that has been going on for many years." ... "In any case, a forum like this is just a part of a broader communication process, that is taking place on the net on a continuous basis in many different forms." The fact that the discussion began haltingly was in no way a question of lack of interest. This is evident in the many visitors to the website, the frequent retrieval of multi-lingual texts via e-mail, the attention of the traditional media, the mails sent directly to the moderator, etc.. "It seems that just those who are the most active members of the different net communities and editors of cultural websites are so much under stress, that they may have not found any spare time yet, to contribute to our debate. But indeed their experiences are of fundamental importance here, because it is especially their sites which are the ones that guarantee the creation of cultural content in the net, precondition we need to have something to 'exchange'."

Kim Machan confirmed: "it is true that time is the most pressing issue when it comes to response! I've found an immense amount of material useful and provoking..." She reported on the different aspects of using the Internet at the MAAP98 Festival (Multimedia Art Asia Pacific) and shared some considerations in preparation for the event next year. "As a practical person ..., I would like to hear more helpful hints from the amazing array of minds linked to the forum..."

Before this came a contribution from José Tlatelpas, who edits the Spanish webzine "La Guirnalda Polar" in Canada. Among other things, he pointed out that "the basics of the discussion still lies in the interactivity between the Occidental World and the 'South'... I think this is not the center of the problem. What about the relations of Africa with Latin America? What about the relations between Asia and Native America...?" He criticized: "many artists and curators are quite interested in relating with USA, but not with Haiti and not with Honduras, to say something."

Last week's final posting came from Teoman Madra from Turkey, who wrote: "we experience that internet gives way to the opportunity, to quickly survey both the immediate past and the ultimate future; which means that men can define his/her position within this in-between moment through the internet..." "artists should lead the way to this new venture."