Meeting the Blogger Next Door in SecondLife: Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuala Meet.

So there I was, logged into SecondLife and hitting the ATM when I scanned a profile and found someone from Venezuala standing next to me. Barquisimeto. I'm in Trinidad and Tobago. A completely chance meeting which started off in Spanish, until I found myself out of my depth - so he was kind enough to switch to English.

Javier Granada is a blogger as well - his personal blog is El Mundo De Javiergil 2.0, where he just posts small things - but he is also a writer for Tu Segunda Vida en Castellano.

A lot of people unfamiliar with the region may think that this chance meeting was nothing special - but in a way it was. It allowed two geographic neighbors to meet, two bloggers to meet, and our knowledge of both Spanish and English allowed us to hammer through and communicate - something which isn't as common between Venezuala and Trinidad and Tobago as there should be. The small distance between the two countries acts as an insulator; the only Venezualans I regularly see in T&T are those which are learning English here in San Fernando. I'm sure that there are more, but it's just not commonplace.

Perhaps this is the start of a bridge across a geographic divide. So far I've met people from around the world, but there's something magical about meeting someone from right next door.

This is one of the things I have been trying to explain to people involved in cultural ICT within the Caribbean, but there are larger problems that are to be faced. Maybe - and I believe this is true - the virtual world can be a better method for such discussions. Unfortunately, like much non-profit (NGO) organizations, the work being done is very insular which is an irony in the face of what is the act of removing cultural and linguistic barriers.

If two people from the region can 'speak' to each other in a virtual world, be nice to one another and form a friendship across the silt in the Gulf of Paria and across the Orinoco River - maybe more is being done in the context of CARDICIS than the people working on culture and ICT could hope for. And maybe that insulation - like so many other professions - is what holds them back. Specialization, after all, is for insects. A more human approach is needed, and perhaps that can happen better through avatars.

I wonder - if people go through their friends lists in SecondLife - how many people do they know from different countries? One word. Globalization.