2011 is Heating Up!
Since the start of the new year, the digital legacy space is getting lots of attention. For me personally, it’s been an exciting ride. Here’s a quick run down of the first 3 months of my year:
- January 6 – The New York Times Magazine published the cover story, “Cyberspace When You’re Dead“, which had been in the works since they interviewed me back in August, 2010.
- January 11 – La Presse, Montreal, published “Les fantômes de facebook“, including an interview with me. (Google Translate English version.)
- January 16 – The Sunday Guardian, New Delhi, ran an interview in “Digital (after)life: Protect your legacy after you go“, (not available online).
- February 8 – I was in studio to record an interview for CBC Radio “Spark“, a show about technology and culture. Air date TBA.
- February 19 – I’m privileged to be speaking about digital legacy at TEDxConcordia in Montreal.
- March 2 – I’ll be interviewed about digital legacy for a yet-to-be-announced documentary film about Facebook.
- March 14 – “You’re Dead, Your Data Isn’t: What Happens Now?” is the SXSW panel let by my friends John Romano and Evan Carroll at The Digital Beyond. I’m thrilled to be participating along with Jeremy Toeman from Legacy Locker and Dazza Greenwood from CIVICS.com.
And that’s just my brag list. John and Evan have been getting lots of interviews and coverage of their newly released book, “Your Digital Afterlife” , which I’ll review in an upcoming post. And, on the business side, I’ll be writing about the new services on the market that I’ve discovered since the new year and some venture capital funding coming out of silicon valley.
This year, I plan to spend more time working in the digital legacy space, interviewing people about their experiences, speaking with industry professionals to understand their struggles and helping to educate people about this very important topic.
I’ll tell you about my discoveries here on Death and Digital Legacy .com and hope that you’ll join me for what will be a very interesting year.
PodCamp Montreal This Weekend
(This has been cross-posted from my marketing blog. I spoke about Digital Legacy for the very first time at PodCamp Montreal in 2009. If you can make it to Montreal this weekend, I’d love to see you at my session.)
Despite not being a podcaster (yet), I love attending podcamps. This weekend is the third edition of PodCamp Montreal and the first time at UQAM’s Coeur des sciences. (It’s also my seventh PodCamp!)
Once again, I am looking forward to a weekend full of tech, social media and great discussions around digital communications and community. There will be 3 tracks of presentations this year; 2 in French, 1 in English.
I’m privileged to be speaking once again. I’ll be presenting a session that is specifically targeted to digital content creators, and is part of my digital legacy series:
Your Web Content : Forever or Fragile?
In the last 15 years we’ve converted analog to digital and put everything on the Web and told that it will be there forever. What if we’re wrong?
Sunday, September 12, 2010
9:30 AM
Chaufferie (hidden away at 175, avenue du Président-Kennedy)
Google Map
The full weekend schedule, including information about Friday’s first ever MediaCamp and the kick off party is here.
Can’t make it to PodCamp Montreal? Check the session schedule to see which sessions will be live streamed to the Internet. (Yes, mine will be.)
Thanks to the PodCamp organizing team Michelle Sullivan, Sylvain Grand’Maison, Laurent Lasalle and Laurent Maisonnave who have done a great job pulling this event together.
Recap on My PodCamp Montreal Session
I want to thank everyone who participated in my session on Death and Digital Legacy at PodCamp Montreal last Saturday. Your openness to share your thoughts and experiences were really inspiring to me. I received some incredible feedback from the session, messages of support, Twitter DMs offering me more stories, and an amazing amount of positive Tweets during the session.
Sadly, my session was not in a room that had live streaming, and my own attempts to capture it on video failed miserably due to an under-charged battery on my Flip camera. However, Friday night, Daniele Rossi spoke with me about what I was planning for my session:
Speaking about Death and Digital Legacy at PodCamp Montreal is the start of what I hope to be an exploration of a subject that impacts everyone, but especially those who are at the forefront of the social media evolution.
My thanks again to all who attended.
PodCamp Montreal: Death and Digital Legacy
Cross posted from adelemcalear.com
My PodCamp Montreal session on Death and Digital Legacy is scheduled for Saturday @ 2:30 PM. And, to be honest, I considered canceling it.
This morning, news spread of the murder of Montreal blogger Renée Wathelet (@endirectdesiles). A fixture in the community, Renée fell in love with Mexico’s Isla Mujeres and moved there last year March. Although, we spoke on Twitter a few times, I only met her once, when she was in town for a visit last February and* came to Twestival.
So many people here loved Renée and were close to her. Many of those same people may be attending PodCamp Montreal. And so, I questioned whether I should cancel my session out of respect to her grieving friends. But, after consideration, I’m going ahead with the session in honour of all that Renée has created and her own digital legacy.
So, if you are interested in the topic of Death and Digital Legacy, I encourage you to attend my session. It will be a round table discussion and participation is encouraged. I will not be making a formal presentation, but instead will share stories that illustrate different discussion points. Some of these may include:
- how do communities mourn online?
- what are the policies of online social sites for families to access loved ones’ accounts?
- do you need a digital trustee named in your will?
- what are some of the new services that have started to manage digital legacy?
- what are the hazards of dormant accounts, whether the user is deceased or not?
I hope to see you there.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
2:30 PM
DE3225
UQAM Design Centre
1440 rue Sanguinet
Montreal
*UPDATE 9/21/09: For more about Renée Wathelet, her friend and YulBiz founder Philippe Martin was interviewed about her on Montreal radio (in French) on 9/21. Listen here.
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SXSW 2010: Panel Voting
Cross posted from adelemcalear.com
I’m pleased to announce that my panel submission for SXSW interactive 2010 has passed the first stage and is open for voting in the PanelPicker. You’ll need sign in to SXSW or create an account to vote, but it only takes a moment.
Posts Mortem: Death and Digital Legacy
If you passed away today, how would your online friends find out? Should logins and passwords be in your will? Has technology changed mourning? Will your digital media stay online forever? Our lives are lived and documented online, it’s time to talk about the implications of death and digital legacy.
Some of the questions that the panel will seek to discuss are:
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- If you passed away, how would your online friends be notified?
- Should logins and passwords be included in your will?
- Would you want your digital presence to remain online forever?
- What the policies of the major social networks for profile access by the family of the deceased?
- What are the repercussions of the phenomenon of the suicide note as Facebook status?
- How has the Internet changed how people come together to mourn?
- Will pre-programmed updates from friends who have passed give them digital immortality?
- How have recent celebrity deaths brought digital mourning to the mainstream?
- If digital profiles truly have inherent value and equity, can they be bequeathed?
- What societal shifts will be required to handle ownership of our online footprints?
In the coming weeks I’ll be addressing some of these questions and seeking feedback. I want to know your personal experience and thoughts on these questions. Have I missed something that you’d like to see discussed? Then, please let me know in the comments.
My thanks to the ever-clever Ike Pigott for coining “posts mortem” and allowing me to use it in my title. My thanks also to all of those who’ve had conversations with me about different aspects of this topic. Your perspectives enrich the discussion.
Panel voting ends on September 4th. I appreciate your support and thank you for your vote.
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Some of my colleagues at Technically Women have also submitted panels to SXSW Interactive, outlined in today’s post. Please consider voting for theirs as well:
Maggie Fox
Scaling Social Media: Getting Credible Content to Mass Audiences
News 2.0 – How Old Media Companies Are Inventing New Models
Rachel Happe
Building Social Strategies at Fortune 100 Companies
Jennifer Leggio
Inherent Dangers of Real-Time Social Networking
How (Not) to Get Banned on Social Networks!
Shireen Mitchell
Is There A Technological Fix for Human Behavior?
Social Media Women of Color
And I’m certain that many more of my colleagues and friends on Twitter are on the SXSW PanelPicker. Please feel free to add your session link in the comments.
Stories From the Web
Testimonials
Congrats @AdeleMcAlear on your most thought-provoking presentation and discussion on Death & Digital Legacy at #pcmtl
— Kathryn Presner @zoonini, PodCamp Montreal 09
