both sides of the conversation

Last week I posted about a Washington Post Second Life story that wasn't fully thought through. James Au over at New World Notes commented on my post, but disagreed with my comments about Second Life and anti-jihadist narratives, making the argument that Second Life could hurt US-Islamic relations by giving those already disposed to extremism more fodder.

It is an interesting point. I was going to post that while SL may expose people to content they find offensive, unlike other media forms, virtual worlds allow individuals from various communities to reach across boundaries in ways they would be unlikely to in the real world. In addition, virtual worlds make it difficult to remain insulated from outside influence, because individuals literally bump into each other.

However, now I don't need to write that post! James just wrote about the Second Life component of the US-Islamic forum. It sounds like it will be a wonderful event and anything Salman gets involved with is worth attending. More than that, the reasons for the event are almost exactly the points I was going to raise.

Give it a read.