Virtual or real?

I don't know about you, but this is my first virtual protest! Surprising to notice how close to RL (Real Life) it really is...
I'm in a virtual world, protesting outside IBM offices, but I'm still hungry, my fingers are getting cold (my office is in Switzerland) and people in Second Life are exactly as you'd expect them to be in the streets: SHOUTING slogans, jumping up and down, picketing and mingling. You have the quiet ones who sit on a bench and watch, the really original ones with funny outfits (I met a French speaking Banana today), and the ones playing music and talking too.

Yet, nothing's normal: no one I meet "has" a real name, I have no idea if they are all IBM workers, trade unionists or spies, if they are from Canada or India! But they all showed up, speaking many languages, demonstrating with the banners, all wearing colored IBM t-shirts...

Nothing's normal, except that IBM management hasn't met with us in SL and still hasn't offered a response to our repeated requests for a return to the bargaining table and decent wages and benefits for its Italian workers. We'll just have to keep going at it!!