Madame Arroyo, the Avatar: Philipines' President Visits Second Life

Rodion Resistance was online checking his local weather in the Philippines, when he came across fairly disconcerting news: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 14th president of his country, recently designated by Forbes magazine as the fourth most powerful woman in the entire world, now had an avatar to call her own.  He just sent along this extensive write-up in "hackenslash", a Filipino gamer blog, documenting Madame President's tour of IBM's virtual campus, and a mixed reality video depicting Ms. Arroyo logging into Second Life from a big screen while an audience looks on and the theme from the original Battlestar Galactica booms in the background.  As it stands, I think she qualifies as the most internationally prominent government leader to make the trip into SL so far.

"Most Filipinos in SL have already been already informed about it," Rodion tells me, though in his case, this isn't just a matter of national pride, but professional interest, too: he's a member of Avatrian, a commercial virtual world developer with an office in the San Francisco Bay Area-- and in Cebu City, Philippines.

Image credit: http://inquirerbloggers.net/hackenslash/

Comments

[Rodion Resistance]

Thanks Hamlet :) Although I personally think they should've played "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss, for the background music...more fitting...hihihi.

[rikomatic]

Note that there are already plans for a virtual Philippines embassy:

http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2007/06/what_i_would_do.html

[Shai Delacroix]

Cool. Theres a growing Filipino resident population in SL, locally and internationally. Best way to get in touch with families they got back home. I'm interested to know what the President's plans are with her virtual presence. Will she hold a town hall meeting? =)