You may have already noticed that we’ve relaunched Global Voices with a new design, put together by the wonderful Boris Anthony of HelpPush. The heavy lifting was done by Boris and Rebecca, but the actual move, yesterday, gave me fond memories of my sysadmin days. (But not as fond as the memories I’m getting from learning that I can search old Usenet archives, using Google Groups…)

Our bright, shiny new look hides some of the most heated comments threads we’ve ever seen on the site. Rebecca’s roundup of Muslim blogger reactions to the 7/7 bombings in London was linked by Instapundit. A number of his readers – many of whom seem convinced that Islam is an inherently violent religion – have had a hard time accepting condolences and condemnations of the bombings from Muslim bloggers.

Some of our Muslim contributors have been participating in the conversation, either on comments threads or with posts. Ahmed of Saudi Jeans reacted to an editorial by Tom Friedman in the New York Times (and a subsequent blogpost by Jeff Jarvis) by asking the question: “Is [terrorism] a Muslim problem so Muslims have to solve it themselves, or is it a global problem and the whole world is responsible to find the solution?”

Thinking about the conversations (and, occasionally, shouting matches) taking place on Global Voices over the past month, I’m realizing that we’re starting to see genuine cross-cultural dialog both through GV and in the blogosphere as a whole. The Live 8 debates and an earlier conversation about the importance of brain drain in Africa involved bloggers from both sides of the continent, as well as Afrophiles and people who knew very little about Africa, but thought Live 8 was an important effort.

Both the Live 8 and 7/7 conversations reveal something very interesting: People in the US and Europe are talking about what people think in Africa or the Middle East… and bloggers in those parts of the world are talking back. And, honestly, folks in the North aren’t always happy with what they hear.

They – we – better get used to it. As the next billion users come online, they’re not just sending email and reading webpages. They’re bloggers, authors, commenters, and you can expect to see lots more conflicts like the US/Brazil war in Orkut.

My dear friend and mentor Dick Sabot passed away (suddenly and unexpectedly) Wednesday night.

Dick was one of the founders of Tripod, and he gave me my first “real” job there… which may still be the best job I’ve ever had. He founded Geekcorps with me, generously supported our work and steered us through and beyond our merger with IESC… and the decision of all the founders to leave the organization. For the past ten years, he’s worked with me on every major project I’ve pursued, either as a partner, or as a supportive critic – for the last decade of adventures, he’s been journeying beside me, or the first person I looked forward to telling about the trip when I came back.

Dick wasn’t just my dear friend and mentor – he guided and advised hundreds of people as scholars, activists and entrepreneurs. Bo Peabody and I, talking immediately after his death, agreed that Dick given us more than many parents give their children… which is made all the more extraordinary by the fact that Dick gave his wife and four children even more.

I’ve been trying, and failing, to write a proper post in Dick’s memory and have realized that it’s going to take longer than a few days for me to process my thoughts and emotions. There’s a memorial service for him in Williamstown this coming Sunday – I’m looking forward to seeing some of the other people whose lives were touched by Dick, hearing their memories and thinking about his extraordinary life, in the hopes of properly remembering him in the future.

My wife, Rachel, has a beautiful remembrance of Dick on her blog. And the obituary in the Berkshire Eagle gives a sense for the richness of Dick’s life.