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Digital Execution for the Living

Digital Execution for the Living

Do lifetime Internet bans on individuals (as part of a sentence for breaking the law) amounts to “digital death”? Check out this interesting article by Andrew Moshirnia at Citizens Media Law Project about how the court is using bans as part of sentencing. We’ve been talking about digital death (and afterlife) in context of the […]

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Stages of the Digital Afterlife

Stages of the Digital Afterlife

When researching the various services that deal with the digital afterlife, a certain pattern started to emerge.  I call this pattern the three stages of the digital afterlife: missed, remembered, forgotten.  I’ll address each in that order, naturally. Missed This is the stage that occurs right after death.  You’ve left a void and your survivors […]

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Social reefs

Social reefs

I have two friends, Paul and Richard. They only know each other through me. What happens to that social connection when I die? Normally all the social connections created through me after I die may slowly decay. As Richard and Paul die, only the physical artifacts (the photos, letters, etc.) remain. 100 years from now, […]

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The artifacts of social interaction

The artifacts of social interaction

In the physical world, interactions between people are remembered. Sometimes the interaction leaves behind physical artifacts. Letters are frequently treasured objects – remembrances of love, loss, and revolution. Photos of people long gone often become family heirlooms. That fact that interactions help form our self identity and our bonds to other people reminds us that […]

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Digital Death is Born

Digital Death is Born

… along with the promise of a digital after life. The concept of “digital death” and “digital afterlife” are just beginning to enter into the public consciousness. We see a constant stream of writers, academics, and entrepreneurs that are realizing the coming importance of digital death and afterlife. What we know Interacting and expressing yourself […]

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South by Southwest 2010

South by Southwest 2010

John and I make no bones about how we came to start a blog about the digital afterlife. We pitched the idea for a panel talking about this for the 2009 SXSW Interactive Festival. After its selection as a core conversation, we devoted ourselves to study the topic in preparation for the event. The response […]

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Selecting a Digital Executor

Selecting a Digital Executor

With all of the conversation surrounding the digital afterlife, one thing is certain: you can’t deal with it by yourself.  You need a person or a service to help you. Services are popping up left and right, just check our (hopefully) comprehensive list. Still, for some things, you really need someone to help you out.  […]

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A legal perspective

A legal perspective

A recent article from Law Vibe provided some advice regarding the legal considerations for digital estate planning. The article recognized the law’s lack of precedence for digital assets and provided some insight about different types of online content like email, blogs and social networking profiles. As we’ve discussed before, there are two issues at play: […]

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