Digital Immortals: Preserving Life Beyond Death – SXSW 2012

Digital Immortals: Preserving Life Beyond Death is the panel I’ve proposed for SXSW 2012. In short we’ll talk about how we can archive our digital content so that it can be preserved and experienced in the future. I’ve asked a great set of panelists to join me:

We need your help getting through the Panel Picker. If you have a few spare moments visit our listing and give us a vote.

Introducing the panelists:

The official description:

When you kick the bucket, you’ll leave behind a vast amount of digital information: a lifetime’s worth of Tweets, emails, blogs, photos, videos and more. They’re the product of a creative life well lived.

In fact, this information forms a rich archive of who we are and what we think. But in a world of passing technology, will our digital selves simply fade away as the victim of neglect? Or will they live on in perpetuity like the Great Pyramids to be remembered and celebrated?

Libraries frequently preserve the collections of the significant and famous, but what about the rest of us? Does technology hold the key to widespread digital preservation? Or should we just die and be dead?

As we think about the future of experiencing the past, how should we prepare? What technology will we need? And what will that mean for society? Join our group of archivists, technologists and interaction designers who are going to discuss the challenges and opportunities of a digitally preserved world.

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    About Evan Carroll

    Evan Carroll is an experience designer and researcher. His passion is observing how people interact with technology and using that insight to create user-centered products and services—a passion that led him to study the digital afterlife. Evan holds BS and MS degrees in Information Science from UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science. He can be contacted by emailing or via Twitter @evancarroll.  Evan's personal site is www.evancarroll.net.

    One Response to Digital Immortals: Preserving Life Beyond Death – SXSW 2012

    1. Victoria Moore August 31, 2011 at 5:16 am #

      Fantastic panel and fascinating topics – you definitely get my vote.

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