Digital Death Day North America
May 6, 2011
Computer History Museum
Mountain View, CA
Digital Death Day North America is the annual gathering of 75-125 attorneys, entrepreneurs, researchers, archivists and thought leaders in the digital death and legacy arena. It’s your opportunity to help shape the evolution of our emerging industry by participating in the
conference.
Our media coverage from last year’s event included:
- Virtual Life after Death Peregrine Andrews, BBC News (May 22, 2010)
- Dead Media Beat: Digital Death Day Bruce Sterling, WIRED (May 22, 2010)
- Life After Death, in Digital Form Rober Roper, Obit Magazine (June 2, 2010)
- How To Plan Ahead For Your Digital Demise NPR Talk of the Nation (June 9, 2010)
- Cyberspace When You’re Dead Rob Walker, NY Times Magazine (January 5, 2011)
- And countless other mentions on blogs and social media sites.
Digital Death Day is a collaborative unconference where attendees will work together to explore how we should deal with our online profiles after death. This is the 3rd Digital Death Day and the 2nd such event in North America. The event immediately follows the 12th Internet Identity Workshop planned for May 3-5 at the same location.
The unconference format allows for an agile event, where everyone is welcome to contribute. Beginning at 9:00 AM we start with a blank wall and though an hour-long, interactive process, create a full day, multi-track conference agenda that is relevant and inspiring to everyone in attendance. Digital Death Day will be facilitated by Kaliya Hamlin who has designed and facilitated over 100 unconferences for professional and technical communities.
Digital Death Day will cover a wide spectrum of topics.
Sample questions include:
- How can I decide what should be done with my social network profiles and other digital assets?
- How can I inform my online friends of my death and share with them my final messages?
- How can I be sure that big companies (like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft) will respect my wishes?
- Does the past have value? Should we make an effort to preserve it?
- Is it too old school to die and be dead?
- How will the wealth of preserved information change the way that future generations look back at us?
- How are you preparing for your own death?
- What services are available?
- What are the policies for e-mail accounts and social websites when you die?
- What about digital assets that are jointly held?
- What happens to the references to other people in the deceased person’s digital assets?
- What happens to the digital assets with references to the deceased person?
Digital Death Day Is For:
- Entrepreneurs
- Internet Services Professionals
- Attorneys / Estate Planners
- Researchers
- Technologists
- Archivists
- Policy Makers
- Funeral Directors
- Media
- People planning their Digital Wills
