1. Your Digital Afterlife
What happens to your digital memories after you die?
Evan Carroll
@evancarroll
The Digital Beyond

3. ©
Bri&ney
Brown.
Used
By
Permission.

6. About Me
• Author of
Your Digital Afterlife
• Author and editor at
TheDigitalBeyond.com
• BS and MS in
Information Science at
UNC-Chapel Hill

7. Today
• What are digital assets?
• Why are they important?
• What issues do they present?
• What solutions are available?
• What should I do?

8. Shift to Digital

9. hp://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_t_in_dc/2662243843

10. Dispatch from LA

11. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mogrify/2842630199

14. ©
Briney
Brown.
Used
By
Permission.

15. 1000memories.com

16. Four Types of
Digital Assets

17. Contents of Computers and Devices
• Desktops
• Laptops
• Tablets
• Mobile phones

18. Email
• Incoming mail
• Stored mail
• Sent mail

19. Social Networking and Websites
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Flickr
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn

20. Online Business
• Marketplaces: eBay, Etsy
• Blog Advertising
• Affiliate programs
• PayPal
• Digital Currency: Bitcoin

21. Digital Assets
Have Value

22. Erving
Goffman
1959

23. Issues Presented by Digital Assets
• Awareness – Do heirs know about the digital asset or
account?
• Access – Do heirs have the appropriate credentials or
means to access an account?
• Rights – Do heirs have the right to take control of or
access an account?
• Preservation – What is the best way to ensure our
memories are available for generations to come?

24. Solutions

25. One Problem. Many Approaches.
Terms of
Service
Laws
Traditional
Estate
Planning
Digital
Afterlife
Digital Estate
Planning
Tools
Digital
Preservation
Solutions

26. Laws

27. State Laws

28. Oklahoma
The executor or administrator of an estate shall
have the power, where otherwise authorized, to
take control of, conduct, continue, or terminate any
accounts of a deceased person on any social
networking website, any microblogging or short
message service website or any e-mail service
websites.

29. Indiana
(b) A custodian shall provide to the personal representative of the
estate of a deceased person, who was domiciled in Indiana at the
time of the person’s death, access to or copies of any documents or
information of the deceased person stored electronically by the
custodian upon receipt by the custodian of:
(1) a written request for access or copies made by the
personal representative, accompanied by a copy of the death
certificate and a certified copy of the personal representative’s
letters testamentary; or
(2) an order of a court having probate jurisdiction of the
deceased person’s estate.

30. Assets vs. Accounts
Account
Assets/Data

31. North Carolina
(a) A custodian shall provide to the personal representative of the
estate of a decedent, who was domiciled in North Carolina at the time
of the person’s death, access to any digital accounts of the decedent
operated by the custodian and copies of any digital assets the
decedent stored by the custodian, upon receipt by the custodian of
either: …
(b) A custodian shall not destroy, disable or dispose of any digital
account or digital asset of the deceased person for two (2) years after
the custodian receives a request or order under subsection (a) above,
unless directed to do so by the personal representative.

33. Terms of Service

37. Choice of Laws
Terms of
Service under
California law
Estate
executed under
Oklahoma law

38. Estate Planning

39. Wills
Digital Assets. My executor shall have the power to
access, handle, distribute and dispose of my digital
assets.
I have prepared a memorandum with instructions
concerning my digital assets and their access,
handling, distribution and disposition. I direct my
executor and beneficiaries to follow my instructions
concerning my digital assets.
http://www.digitalestateresource.com/sample-language/

40. Digital Executors
I authorize my executor to engage _____________
to assist in accessing, handling, distributing and
disposing of my digital assets.
Grants powers to a “digital executor” who might
understand technology more than the primary
executor.
http://www.digitalestateresource.com/sample-language/

41. Digital Estate
Planning Tools

42. Planning Services
• Storage – Usernames, passwords and other
documents
• Wishes – Instructions for each asset
• Trigger – The mechanism that releases the
information to heirs

43. Examples
• Provides a 64-character
code to release account
• Waiting period gives user
a chance to stop release
• Serves as a password/
document vault during life
• Releases information only
with a death certificate
• Doesn’t provide access to
data during the user’s life

45. Google’s Inactive Account Manager
• Allows access to Google data following a period of
inactivity
• A warning is issued one month before the end of
the waiting period
• Users can specify contacts to receive access to
information
• Users can also request deletion of their account

46. Digital Preservation
Solutions

47. Online Memorial Services
• Online obituary listings
• Online memorial pages
• Personal archives

49. What Should
We Do Now?

50. As Individuals…
• Review and understand the legislation and terms of
service relevant to our digital assets
• Create an estate plan that includes our digital
assets
• Take steps to back-up and preserve our personal
digital momentos

51. As Professionals…
• How can we design personal archives so that a
lifetime of digital content can be accessible and
meaningful to future generations?
• How can we imbue digital objects with
meaning?

52. How Do We…
• Ease the transition from the creator to new
curators?
• Honor and respect the wishes of the deceased?
• Maintain the personal value of the collection?

53. Design + Education

54. Design Principles
• Ensure awareness and access
• Communicate personal value
• Tackle quantity
• Provide communal experience

55. Awareness and Access
• It’s not always easy to find
digital objects.
• Heirs are necessarily
sophisticated technology
users.
• PDA systems should
provide a means of
awareness and access.

56. Communicate Value
• Why did the creator
believe this object was
important?
• We already have
some metadata, but
how can we passively
capture meaning?

57. Tackle Quantity
• Will caretakers of
personal archives
be overwhelmed
by quantity?
• One important
object is often as
valuable 10,000
objects.

58. Communal Experience
• Digital objects move
us away from
experiencing them
together in person.
• Can we attach
comments and other
conversations to our
digital objects?

59. Education
•
•
•
•
•
Organization
File formats
Storage media
Curation
Metadata

60. “We all die. The goal isn't to
live forever, the goal is to
create something that will.”
Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

61. Questions

62. Thank You
evan@thedigitalbeyond.com
@evancarroll
www.thedigitalbeyond.com
www.yourdigitalafterlife.com

63. #RootsInnovator
RootsInnovator.org