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Rahul Gaitonde

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Who will archive when you die?

Started by Rahul Gaitonde · 9 months ago

So you blog, post comments, use Twitter, post photos on Flickr, videos on Youtube, talk with friends on half-a-dozen networking sites, and yes, send and receive tons of email. 
Which is all very fine. Until the day you die.
What happens to your digital possessions after y ... Continue reading »

5 comments

  • GWBE

    8 months ago

    Hmmm that's an interesting. I have thought about this...especially about the blog and the photos I keep uploading on flickr.

    My personal take on this is that most people wouldn't want to go to elaborate details to handover email, messages etc to someone after their death. Artifacts like blog might be kept alive and would die eventually if it's not interesting enough for the next gen. But things like photos, mail etc are the most valuable only to the person who owns them (assuming that everyone has their own mail, archive of photos etc) and once they pass way, there wouldn't be much value in maintaining it (unless the person was famous!). I guess the only thing people might worry about that is that any sensitive information would not be exposed to people after their death. But maybe, they wouldn't care. They are in a different world!
    reply
  • Rahul Gaitonde

    8 months ago

    GWBE,

    You have a point when you say " most people wouldn't want to go to elaborate details to handover email, messages etc to someone after their death..." But I'm betting that families are going to want to archive - or at least maintain a copy of - their loved one's digital possessions. From there will grow a complicated tangle of issues, three of which I discussed.

    Your point about "blog(s) might be kept alive and would die eventually..." also makes me think of the tremendous amount of digital flotsam that is accumulating on the web every day. After all, it takes money to store, host, back up and serve this data - data that owners no longer want. This might sound incredibly naive, but I often wonder whether we won't one day require spring-cleaning for the web!
    reply
  • Karra

    8 months ago

    I've thought about this problem (and opportunity) for some years now. Do not have the bandwidth right now to go into the details, however will just say thing - your approach seems to be from a 'forensic' approach and issues around it. A more ready market might be 'executor' services for the e-parts of Wills . Remind me to talk about it some time we meet (/online)
    reply
  • Rahul Gaitonde

    8 months ago

    Karra,

    Both comments on this post begin with "I have thought about this..." - statement on our generation? :P

    Interesting that Priya says "most people wouldn't want to go to elaborate details to handover" their digital possessions, while you talk of a ready market for "'executor' services for the e-parts of Wills". Finally, I looked at this from the deceased's family's point of view - what they'd want done.

    Wonder what the immediate market really is.
    reply
  • Karra

    8 months ago

    Hm, I guess Priya and I have different kinds of 'online information' in mind. I have more 'serious' stuff, like online access to banks, for e.g. - if a bloke dies, nothing prevents someone from operating the account online using the password/secure key etc. - stuff that is impossible in the world of paper and signatures. I think this problem is interesting in some way, and I would bet it points to many legal gray areas, at least in places like India.

    _Access_ to one's personal space and online identity after death has many uses other than just archival and preservation of content placed online.
    reply

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