welcome to Salon 21st, Salon's weekly digital culture department. Our goal is simple: to bring you the Web's best-written, most insightful and liveliest coverage of the issues, people and ideas at the bustling intersection where digital technology meets world culture. On the Web, you can already find everything you ever wanted to know about new products and upgrades, which technology companies are up and which are down, what software is hot and what hardware wins the speed test. There's more information than anyone can digest — and enough misinformation to cause a bad case of indigestion. So Salon 21st isn't going to be the place to read the latest press release from Megasofteltechco about its whizzy new Multicommflowtasker Suite — or the follow-up bug reports. Instead, we'll offer you more of what Salon has brought you all along: the best writers on the Web picking out the most important trends and ideas, putting them in context, viewing them with knowledgeable skepticism, helping you make sense of the info-glut. Our coverage isn't narrowly targeted at Net professionals or newbies. It's for any intelligent reader who cares about the future. At this stage in history we think that technology is more than a matter of engineering and business — it's a cultural force, too. The digital world has become a fascinating meeting ground for scientists and artists; it's a place where the "two cultures" of science and the humanities, in C.P. Snow's phrase, can begin to heal their rift — or at least talk across the chasm. With that in mind, our conception of a "digital culture story" will be broad and inclusive — everything from pop culture to corporate computing, from literature to the Web underground. Let's Get This Straight, a new regular department, will feature brief dispatches to help combat some of the distortions and confusions that regularly mar media coverage of digital-culture news. We plan to keep some critical distinctions in mind: There's a difference between personality and snotty attitude. There's a difference between timeliness and hysteria. And there's a difference between forward thinking and hype. We trust that if we slip up, you'll be there to call us on it in Salon's Table Talk. Table Talk's Digital Culture area will be closely linked to Salon 21st's articles. And our writers — when they're not on the phones or on the road — will be mixing it up in there, too. Enjoy 21st, and thanks for reading! Scott Rosenberg Salon 21st editor Elizabeth Kairys Salon 21st art director Send us e-mail at salon21st@salonmagazine.com Sign up for the Salon 21st newsletter: Each week we'll e-mail an announcement telling you what's new in 21st, with direct links to the articles. If you'd like to receive our newsletter, you can sign up here.