Video games and online virtual worlds (like Linden Lab's Second Life) normally are avenues of escape from the real world. With Second Life, however, the lines between reality and virtuality are blurred as the "real" slowly infiltrates the "virtual": Reuters, Dell, digital product piracy *AHEM*... and now the global anti-poverty movement.

The British-based World Development Movement (WDM) is the first anti-poverty non-governmental organization (NGO) to make its presence - and make it felt - in Second Life. Not only are there members living and meeting in that virtual world, they've put up a large billboard with the "Global Poverty Death Counter" on it.

Call it a reminder in the virtual world of what's happening in the real world. The counter announces how many children around the world have died of poverty-related issues  - and there are a ton of poverty-related issues that can kill a child - since Second Life's founding in July of 2003.

Escapism or not, everyone has to log out of the virtual once in a while, and WDM's move serves to remind us that, well, there IS a real world to worry about when we log out. Or at the very least, we could care once in a while for the children who need - who deserve - a chance at their own lives. We could easily foresee that WDM will likely expand its virtual activities to include fundraising activities (L$ are exchangeable for US$, after all) and virtual recruitment for post-log-off, real-world endeavors.

We can also predict that other NGOs around the world will soon follow suit, taking advantage of the virtual to boost their own real-world causes.

Thanks to Murray Benham for sending this in.