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 people are social creatures. So it shouldn’t surprise us that online social media is consuming the Web. An online analogy of an offline biological imperative seems like a natural extension for humanity.

All this online social interaction leaves behind artifacts, too. Tweets, Facebook messages, photos, videos and comment streams of all sorts.

So do these interactions belong to their creators or all the participants? If you are in your friend’s photo, is it also part of your identity? I would venture to say “yes”. But this affirmation raises some serious questions about ownership and our ideas of assets.

If virtual assets are going to be archived and permanently associated with a person, what assets should go into storage? Every picture that you take? Every picture that you are tagged in? Every picture that you talk about with our friends?

Is it possible that the interaction is the asset and that all the participants are the owners?

It seems to me that the old model of creator and creation – owner and asset may become outmoded. I see a new model of interaction and participant. But it isn’t that easy. User agreements form the only legal framework available, and they often state that service is the owner of the interaction.

Would a service that captures and archives the interaction make sense? Are the interactions out of context valuable?

… 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 online produces copius amounts of personal data that create a digital identity.

And even though physical death is inevitable, the death of your digital identity is not. This identity will survive as long as it’s data lives on. But this raises lots of questions.

digitaldeath.eu

Some thoughtful people at http://www.digitaldeath.eu have joined us in our exploration of this new frontier. Head on over to their site. Their scholarly approach reads quickly and they have some videos that address the digital beyond.

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.  We (among others) have been calling this person a digital executor: a person whom you designate to execute your digital estate.

So, what makes a good digital executor?  As I see it, there are three critical components: trust, distance and capability.  I’ll address them in that order.

Trust

Seems pretty simple, right? In fact, it is.  You need to select someone who will respect your wishes and faithfully carry out your digital will. I don’t think there’s any more to say here.

Distance

Your executor needs to be close enough to you that you can trust them (see above), but needs to be somewhat distanced from you for a couple of reasons.  If you choose someone like your spouse or significant other there’s a greater chance that they will pass at the same time you do.  Then, of course, your digital will would not be carried out, unless you had others in place as well. It’s also important to have a person that will carry out your will without hesitation.  Those close to you may have trouble with deleting files or profiles (should that be your wish) in the name of preserving  your memory.

Capability

Finally, you should find someone who is up to the task and there are a few dimensions of this.  First, they should have access to your information.  However you choose to store you authentication information and wishes, they should be capable of accessing it.  Second, they should have the appropriate technical savvy.  Want your Facebook account deleted? You might want to choose someone who has a Facebook account.  Enough said.  Finally, they need to outlive you.  This goes back to distance, but you should think about age too.  When you’re young, someone from your own generation is likely suitable, but as you get older someone from the next generation may be more appropriate.

I’m sure there’s other considerations given your unique situation, but it’s my hope that this list will give you some helpful tips to get started.

The issue of digital death is getting common enough that we can now FAIL to answer the question.

http://failblog.org/2009/06/10/yahoo-answers-fail/

Humans seem to have a need for immortality. We also seem to have a need to understand where we came from. So here are two scenarios to help me frame a question:

Today

What would you give to know how your ancient ancestors lived? Where were they when the pyramids were built, at the birth of Jesus, during the dark ages, the Renaissance? What were their lives were like? What forces shaped their lives? How did they die? What was important to them?

2,000 year from now:

A far distant descendant wants to know what life was like for his ancestors living at the dawn of the digital age. His digital family tree shows him all his ancestors back to the mid 1900′s.  For any person in his tree he can see video, still images, writing, and conversations (and who knows what other forms of media) from that person’s entire life – birth to death. His oldest ancestor on record is a man named John Romano. Born in 1971, he witnessed the the cold war, fossil fuels, the beginning of the Net, and  global warming. He saw the birth of mobile technology, augmented reality, and ubiquitous computing.

The question is “do we want this?”

Is an archive of human history important to us or to others? Is this valuable? Do we want this? To me, this is the essential question at the center of the conversation about digital afterlife.

People often talk sadly about the last thing they said to or did with a loved one before they die. Petty arguments. Missed meetings. These regrets often follow the survivors for the rest of their lives.

Technology is now making it easier to send your loved ones messages that they receive after you die. The Great Goodbye specializes in sending photos, MP3s, videos, and email to your loved ones to comfort them as they mourn you death.

But the service doesn’t state that all your emails have to be love letters. You could reveal who really shot J.F.K or raise some hell one last time? Ahh. To know that you got in the last word.

At the end of most wedding vows is the line “til death do us part.”  Death is the end of your physical life, but if your digital existence continues, when does your online marriage end?  Can the relationship between two online personas continue even if the people behind them change?  What if one partner is a figment of virtual reality?  Can it continue indefinitely?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but maybe you do.  Let’s talk about it.

It seems like the issue of digital death has reached mainstream, evidenced by The Onion now commenting on it.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/facebook_friend_apparently

“Boy. That’s a shame. Just goes to show you that you really have to enjoy every SuperPoke like it’s your last.”

Thanks to Sharkey for the link.

In this post, Steven Keith, a strategist at Capstrat, has provided me with the next real world need in search of an online equivalent.

I recently watched the director’s cut of Bladerunner. His job is to kill the aging androids. I thought a job of the future would be to kill someone’s digital past- for hire. Or offer services to alter relics or artifacts of someone’s past so you could change history to protect their political or executive future.

Imagine virtual detectives and digital hitmen roaming the bytes of your past annihilating all evidence of your misgivings, paving the road to your new pristine tomorrow in exchange for money, services or whatever form the currency of our reputation will take.

I think of “The Wolf” in Pulp fiction combined with Trinity from The Matrix. A super-stealthy hacker who can mop up your bloody past and erase your digital finger prints – all without leaving a trace.

Will there be legitimate and/or underground “cleaner” services that allow someone to erase “unfortunate” moments captured and released into the wilds of the Web? Will you want to do this at your death to gussy up your digital afterlife? Or will you want to control when your secrets hit the street. Personally, I am still waiting for someone on their death bed to spill the beans about JFK’s murder, like the inventor of Big Foot.

A friend emailed this today. Written by chromepoet.

Very soon, we will read about people who toss it all by posting a list of their usernames/passwords, shutting down their computers and walking off the grid, never to be heard of again. It will be the equivalent of a digital suicide.

And would make a great movie.

I love it. Digital Suicide. What a bizarre concept.