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Death + Popular Culture Death + Technology Death + the Web

SxSW 2016: Everybody Dies: What Is Your Digital Legacy? Friday, March 11 @ 5pm

Everybody Dies: What Is Your Digital Legacy?
SxSW 2016 Panel with Alethea Lange, Dr. John Troyer (from Death Ref!), Megan Yip, and Vanessa Callison-Burch
Friday, March 11, 2016 @ 5pm
Austin Convention Center
Room 8ABC

Death Ref John will be at the South-by-Southwest 2016 Interactive conference on Friday, March 11 to discuss digital technology and legacy issues. He’s speaking with a really dynamic group, all of whom represent different angles on the Death and Digital Technology world:

Alethea Lange (@AletheaLange)
Policy Analyst, Center for Democracy & Technology

Megan Yip (@MeganYip)
Lawyer, Law Office of Megan Yip

Vanessa Callison-Burch (@vcb)
Product Manager for Memorialisation, Facebook

And here’s what they will all be discussing:

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Ben Franklin’s quote has survived because he was a famous man in his time. But haven’t you said some clever things in your time? Maybe even Tweeted them? Technology has democratized history–no longer are only the lives of the rich and famous carefully preserved, now most of us have exhaustive records of our lives in our emails, chats, social media posts, and digital photos. States across the country are updating their estate laws to reflect this new reality, but the right answers aren’t obvious. Should your emails be passed along? Should your online presence die with you? How do you want to be remembered?

You can send the panel questions by using this hashtag: #techlegacy

Death and the Internet. It’s kind of a big deal.

5 replies on “SxSW 2016: Everybody Dies: What Is Your Digital Legacy? Friday, March 11 @ 5pm”

Hi, I live in Australia, but this is a topic dear to my heart because of an online project I am working on. I was wondering if this will actually be televised / recorded so I can listen in please? Thanks!

The session will be audio recorded and then released later. We think. That’s what usually happens.

Very interested in this conversation…. I am also interested in the impact and legal obligations of the designated “heir” to this digital legacy. As someone who works with individuals who have had someone die, the impact on them and the long term responsibility and obligation to maintain a legacy seems to often be overlooked. Once you’re dead, you really won’t care so much about your digital legacy. But the living will. (BTW: I’m in Austin, I work with the grieving, and I have a special death oriented project i am working on).

I’m studying this topic and would like to hear or read this talk, so if you have a later post or a podcast, please let know.
I would also like to hear from Vanessa Callison-Burch, if she could kindly share data about the use of FB legacy contact. Recently I read a study suggesting that large percentage of legacy contacts were self-selected (meaning, they were not selected by the deceased user), and I wonder if FB have some numbers they can share about the this option and how common it is.

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