webcom Montreal
I’m speaking on Death and Digital Legacy today at webcom Montreal. The line up from the social media world is incredible – Jimmy Wales, founder of wikipedia, Tara Hunt, Julien Smith, Chris Heuer, Kristie Wells, Jeff Pulver and loads of other people who are at the forefront of the profession. Kindly, before my session the team were kind enough to interview me.
I’ll follow up with more from the conference after I present and have a moment to breathe.
(The next day…)
What a great conference! My thanks to Claude Malaison and the producers of webcom Montreal for a really well-run event. It was quite an experience to speak on that BIG stage, with the UN emblem behind me.
Photo by Eva Blue
(That’s the brilliant Sean Power on stage talking about social media analytics.)
Feedback on my session was good and I hope that I got the audience thinking about their own digital legacy and who they might assign as their digital executor.
Thanks to everyone who came out to my session.
Prepping Digital Assets and Emru Townsend
I was very happy to have been interviewed by journalist Amy Dempsey for the Canadian Press article “Prepping digital assets for the great off-line.” Even more gratifying was introducing Amy to Tamu Townsend, champion of bone marrow donation, who’s story of her brother Emru was featured in the piece. I met Tamu last year when I was organizing Twestival Montreal, but I had learned of Emru’s struggle via Twitter many months before that. I’m grateful to Tamu for taking the time last summer to talk to me about Emru, his life and death, and her struggle to gain access to his online accounts. It’s a story I tell frequently when I speak about the many issues surrounding death and digital legacy.
For more:
Prepping digital assets for the great off-line
New York Times Digital Afterlife
Cross posted from adelemcalear.com
Yesterday The New York Times ran the interview I did about The Digital Afterlife and the need to appoint a digital executor:
Internet Protocol is Jenna Wortham’s advice column for technology. The question was:
Not to be morbid, but I have a lot of private information and details stored on my computer — in various Google Chat logs, e-mail and social networking accounts — that I wouldn’t want to be revealed when I log off for good. Who should I consult or what do I need to do to ensure my cache is cleared and e-mail and social networking sites accounts are deleted when I die?
This person wants to keep private things quiet. Perhaps they have another online persona or have made some online indiscretions or simply don’t want their family to know about certain dealings?
Things become much more complicated in attempting to keep this secret after they pass. Although there are automated services to notify your friends on social networks or selected individuals of your passing, in the case above, you’d still have to rely on someone to access your computer if you want your cache or sensitive files deleted. Yes, you’d need the digital equivalent of a “porn buddy” to wipe your computer clean of sensitive information, from financial information to, well, porn.
You can read my advice on appointing a digital executor here. What would you advise?
Have you appointed a digital executor to keep your online digital legacy alive? What about someone to delete private information from your computer or from online? Have you thought about it at all?
Let me know what you think.
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Testimonials
@AdeleMcAlear it was fantastic seeing you again at #igniteottawa. you're a heck of presenter on an important topic
— Allan Isfan @Isfan, Ignite! Ottawa
