Digital Death Day in Silicon Valley
Last month at the SXSW Interactive festival, I learned of the Digital Death Day unconference happening on May 20 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. This is the first unconference dedicated to discussing the ideas of death online, whether that entails wanting to claim your own information and delete it, or, what happens to your digital identity online when you physically die.
From their site:
Death is a part of life but what does death of the physical self mean for the digital self?
This is a conference focused on this question and others around “digital death”.
- What does it mean for loved ones of the departed?
- What does it mean for professionals in end of life care and post mortem services?
- What does it mean for online tool and service providers?
- What does it mean for estate and legacy planners?
- What do people do to prepare for their own deaths in relationship to their online life?
- What do friends and relatives do with the digital assets of a loved one when they die? What if aspects of their online life were secret or just not understood?
- What does it mean for governments and public records?
- What businesses are serving this market?
The Digital Death Day unconferenced has been added on to the end of the 10th Internet Identity Workshop, running from May 17 to 19 and founded by Kaliya Hamlin (@IdentityWoman). Kaliya is a pioneer in the identity community, co-producing the IIW with Phil Windley and Doc Searls. She is also fellow if the Information Card Foundation, one of the few members of the Open Web Foundation and a member of the OpenID Foundation.
It’s great to see Kaliya take a leading role in bringing this discussion, not only to the identity community, but to silicon valley where so many of the decisions about online policy, services and products are made.
This conference is aimed at:
- People planning their Digital Wills
- Online Social Networks
- Companies offering services for digital afterlife management
- Death Care Professionals
- Estate Planners
- Legacy Planners
- End of Life Planners
- Death Attorneys
- Hospice volunteers
Registration for Digital Death Day is open now. Follow @DigitalDeathDay on Twitter.
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Testimonials
Discussing the need to appoint a 'Digital Executor' Great presentation by @adelemcalear.
— Tara Hunt @missrogue, PodCamp Montreal 09
