Summary: For a very long time community building was something that took place in the ldquo;realrdquo; world. You voted, you attended city council meetings and clam bakes. You shaped your sphere of influence into something that mirrored your hopes, dreams, desires and beliefs. Well, for several years now, yoursquo;ve also been able to do that online as well. ldquo;People are forming social groups that are global with people theyrsquo;ve met in this medium,rdquo; says Rita King, CEO of Dancing Ink Productions and co-author of the three part ldquo;Understanding Islam through Virtual Worldsrdquo; study. ldquo;In fact I went to Brooklyn a couple of days ago to meet Alexis Madrigal whorsquo;s a writer for Wired who I first discovered in Twitter and it turns out he was just absolutely fantastic," she says. "And when we met he said he feels like hersquo;s finding his tribe.rdquo; Building Tribes, Exploring Cultures There are myriad ldquo;virtualrdquo; worlds you can immerse yourself into to build your tribe. Therersquo;s World of Warcraft and Everquest -ndash; two fantasy games that allow you to network and build communities with people from all over the place. Then there is Second Life, which can be fantastical at times, but which can also mirror everyday concerns. King and her research partner, Joshua Fouts, have been exploring the experiences of Muslims in Second Life. ldquo;I met a Muslim woman in a virtual Jewish synagogue,rdquo; King says. ldquo;She told me that her entire life shersquo;d been curious about what goes on in a prayer service in a synagogue but felt if she went into a physical world synagogue she would be persecuted or make people uncomfortable.rdquo; King says that intrigued her; this idea that people might be seeking out new cultural experiences in Second Life. A Virtual Hajj Armed with a grant from the Richard Lounsbery Fund King and Fouts spent a year in Second Life. During that time they engaged in chats with people from all over the world about Islam and Muslim life. They even went on a virtual Hajj and visited a mosque built by a Muslim woman. The woman, King says, invited people to visit her mosque to debate points of Islamic law. ldquo;People from 12 countries attended and they had an absolutely civilized and thoughtful conversation that revealed how kaleidoscopic these laws are around the world and what affect that has on women and men and children and people as a whole,rdquo; she says. That was the overriding theme of much of what she and Fouts found -ndash; that the Muslims, and non-Muslims, they encountered in Second Life were interested in having an open and respectful dialogue about Islam. Mark Bell is a Ph.D. student at Indiana University studying computer mediated communication. He says that is typical of the Second Life experience. He says the virtual world is a place where you can investigate, and even participate in, other cultures without getting in trouble for it. ldquo;When you exist in Second Life you can try on different cultures for a very short period of timerdquo; Bell says. ldquo;Be it a culture thatrsquo;s different than your gender, be it a culture thatrsquo;s different than your race, be it a culture thatrsquo;s different than your species and try those cultures out in a artificial way that is completely free of repercussions to you physically or economically.rdquo; The Aid Of Avatars Bell says he thinks the emotional risks of trying on a new way of looking at the world are fewer in Second Life because you have your avatar to shield you. While it is a representation of yourself yoursquo;ve created, it can serve as a firewall between the virtual world and the real world. He also says most people go into Second Life, not looking for trouble, but to actually encounter other cultures. ldquo;I think by going into Second Life yoursquo;re already signifying that yoursquo;re searching for something other than your usual existencerdquo; he s...
