{"id":3257,"date":"2011-07-04T05:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T05:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=3257"},"modified":"2011-07-04T05:21:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T05:21:00","slug":"dead-man-blogging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/dead-man-blogging\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead Man Blogging"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u201cHere it is. I\u2019m dead, and this is my last post to my blog.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been haunted since I read those words a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Jenn Whinnem<\/a> had hosted a discussion on {grow} about our digital footprint <\/a>and the implications when we die. Johnny Russo<\/a>, added a link to a post<\/a> by Derek K. Miller, who wrote his farewell\u00a0to his blog community and\u00a0family in anticipation of his death from a terminal disease.\u00a0 It is a stunning, poignant,\u00a0post and it\u00a0ends perfectly.\u00a0 \u201cI loved you,\u00a0I loved you,\u00a0I loved you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since that day,\u00a0Derek\u2019s post has been pounding in my head.\u00a0\u00a0When I die, should\u00a0I just die, or do I publish a coda? What happens with this\u00a0community? Is there such a thing as a digital legacy and is that something you can prepare for?<\/p>\n

In 2007 I\u00a0suffered an extremely serious spinal cord injury and\u00a0could have died.\u00a0 The doctors were surprised I could walk afterward and\u00a0suspected\u00a0the injury might even\u00a0affect my cognitive abilities.\u00a0 For months, my\u00a0brain was on random play, sending\u00a0unpredictable signals to my arms, legs and neck.\u00a0 I never knew what sensation or pain I would be feeling next.\u00a0 My\u00a0nervous system\u00a0was out of control and nobody could know when, or if, this would end.<\/p>\n

I was lucky. Other than a plate in my head, the lasting effects of this trauma are minimal.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m acutely aware of how fast you can lose it all. Death had a hand\u00a0on me and I escaped that time.\u00a0 But\u00a0it is going to happen, perhaps\u00a0without warning. Perhaps tomorrow.<\/p>\n

How should I use this blog and my other \u201cdigital assets\u201d\u00a0to\u00a0say goodbye to you, my friends and my family\u00a0on MY terms?\u00a0\u00a0What happens to {grow} and this digital footprint when I die?\u00a0 Will any of you even\u00a0know what happened?\u00a0Does any person\u00a0know how to get into my account to publish something to say, \u201cWell, he\u2019s gone. You can move along now.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is uncomfortable, but I have begun writing my farewell blog post.\u00a0 A little at a time. Might take years. But I\u2019m doing it. I am also leaving a set of instructions to\u00a0my kids so they can\u00a0find the \u201cpublish\u201d button. It\u2019s a start.<\/p>\n

I think this makes sense \u2026 as much as an emotional issue like this can make sense.\u00a0 I think it would bring closure for all of us, although from my position, it won\u2019t really be on my mind unless I turn into a blogger spirit\u00a0who can\u2019t rest until somebody publishes the last post! The WordPress Ghost.<\/p>\n

How things have changed.\u00a0 My grandmother died exactly 10 years ago.\u00a0 She was a lively, interesting woman but her stories live on only in my mind.\u00a0 As far as I know, not a single video, photo,\u00a0or voice recording of Grandma exists in the digital world.\u00a0 In fact, if you google her name, the search returns\u00a0images of Halle Berry.\u00a0 This would have amused her.<\/p>\n

All my grandmother left was a box of photo albums and her collection of Hummel figurines.\u00a0 But we\u2019re busy\u00a0producing fresh masses of permanent, searchable content.\u00a0 Buckets of it.\u00a0 Articles. Photos.\u00a0 Videos. We are the first generation who can potentially live forever through our personal published works. We can have a cyber-soul.<\/p>\n

What is that digital life story going to look like for you?<\/p>\n

When I started looking into this subject, I found that curating your content\u00a0legacy and preparing for digital afterlife is becoming a big business. Think about it.\u00a0 As the Digital Natives grow older, of course they are going to want their cyber selves to live on.\u00a0 The ultimate narcissistic final act.<\/p>\n

I found\u00a0hundreds of\u00a0resources out there to help you manage the digital end game,\u00a0but here are just a few to give you a flavor of this emerging industry:<\/p>\n

Several services will\u00a0contact loved ones (or hated ones) with emails when you die.\u00a0 They all basically work the same way. You queue up your emails and then the service sends you periodic emails to confirm you\u2019re still alive. If you stop responding, your emails\u00a0get unlocked and are distributed. This way,\u00a0you can communicate your passwords, last wishes, and long-held secrets after you\u2019re gone. One site will send your emails on dates you choose for 60 years into the future. An example of a free service is\u00a0Dead Man\u2019s Switch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another cottage industry is the curation of digital assets for future generations.\u00a0 There is a wide variety\u00a0of options, both free and paid. A site such as My Wonderful Life <\/a>allows you to put together an online scrap book of everything that was important to you. This company has a great slogan: \u201cYou only get one chance to make a last impression.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the world of physical assets is fairly clear-cut thanks to wills and legal procedures, digital asset management is confusing. What will happen to your domains? Where\u2019s that Adsense money going? What about your PayPal account? What about\u00a0the half-finished novel backed up in Dropbox?\u00a0Entrustet<\/a> is an example of a\u00a0company who will manage your assets as your \u201cdigital executor\u201d when you pass away.<\/p>\n

In the creepy category is\u00a0Lifenaut.com<\/a> which promotes\u00a0\u201da database of personal reflections captured in video, image, audio and documents about yourself that can be saved, searched, downloaded and shared with friends.\u201d This information is meant to be filtered through an \u201cinteractive avatar,\u201d modeled on you, \u201cthat becomes more intelligent as you add more information.\u201d<\/p>\n

VirtualEternity<\/a> also claims to convert the personal data you provide into an avatar \u2014 sort of like one of those chatbots that some online companies use for automated but more humanish customer service. \u201cWe want to give users the gift of immortality\u201d they say. Basically this is an avatar that you teach to be you.<\/p>\n

If you want to keep up with emerging trends in this field, you might want to check out\u00a0The Digital Beyond,<\/a> a comprehensive website on the subject examining practical, legal, and emotional issues of a digital legacy.<\/p>\n

As I reviewed what I had\u00a0written, I notice that this started out as a personal post about my mortality and digital legacy and it has devolved into a \u201chow-to\u201d post.\u00a0 Probably some deep meaning there. I\u2019ll let you junior psychologists figure it out.<\/p>\n

Any way, Mr. Derek K. Miller has inspired me to get serious about this and I\u2019m considering\u00a0my digital afterlife and how I want my blog to end some day.<\/p>\n

Of course you already know the last line.\u00a0 \u201cI loved you, I loved you, I loved you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why mess with perfection?<\/p>\n

Mark Schaefer<\/p>\n

Originally posted on {Grow}<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHere it is. I\u2019m dead, and this is my last post to my blog.\u201d I\u2019ve been haunted since I read those words a few weeks ago. Jenn Whinnem had hosted a discussion on {grow} about our digital footprint and the implications when we die. Johnny Russo, added a link to a post by Derek K. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,435],"tags":[285,1175,1364,1365,1366,1367,1369,1368],"class_list":["post-3257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-markschaefer","tag-blog","tag-death","tag-digital-afterlife","tag-digital-assets","tag-digital-footprint","tag-digital-fossil","tag-farewell","tag-last"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3257"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3260,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3257\/revisions\/3260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}