Alberta spoke about death and how we do or do not plan for it when we think of our social media accounts and others. I was not only slightly late for this session (couldn’t find the room if I remember correctly) but some rando started an argument with me online about the ethics of Apple’s choices about the iPad midway through the session. So if I missed stuff, my apologies! It was a great talk.
A little late for Alberta Sorzano’s talk about our digital afterlives. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
On average there are 5.5 social media accounts per person. (Some of us have many more than that, even if they’re not active.) #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
When we think about death, we need to think about a different kind of death. What happens to all the things we left out in “cyberspace”? #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
In England they think about the government’s role for people in a very different way. “Tell us once” is a service that means when someone dies you only have to tell the government once – not call every single department to tell them #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
In Italy they don’t have that same service. When someone dies in Italy you not only have to change the pension in multiple places, you have to declare that you didn’t murder the person whose pension you’re claiming #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
One of Alberta’s friends spent 4 months trying to get her dad’s electricity shut off after he died. That’s painful! #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
In 2015 there was a law passed that allows the natural heirs to access digital accounts of someone who’s died, in South Dakota. This is nice, but what about privacy? #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
In Delaware when you die someone will have access to all your social media. Does that protect your privacy? What should happen to your personal communication after you die? #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Facebook has denied parents access to a dead daughter’s accounts in the past. Apple has denied access to a dead son’s iPad. Is that right? #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
How many of us have made a conscientious effort to go through all our social media accounts and select what is appropriate where we can? #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
We could go at any time. Accidents happen all the time. Our digital affairs are probably not in order. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
What do YOU want to happen after you die? #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Do you want your partner, mom, sibling, to read the messages stored in your email? #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
We have private things, that we didn’t share, either because they’d be hurtful or because they’re ours. Do you really want everyone in your life to have access to them after you die? #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
In Italy when you die you can be buried in a seed, so your body becomes a tree…. as your body decomposes the chemical reactions power a light at the bottom of the tree. (Me: Oh that’s got odd Speaker for the Dead vibes.) #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
In 1901 Dr. Macdougall of Haverhill did a lot of experiments trying to weigh people before and after they died – a soul according to him weighs 21 grams. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
“I want a Viking funeral” — oh Alberta, me too. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
You can have your ashes compressed into a diamond. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
What do you do with all your accounts. Planned Departure promises to handle your accounts, but it’s really just a vault that allows access to everything. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
In Japan, Yahoo Endings takes cares of the finances, sort out your funeral, but still don’t really handle the accounts #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Even Google has thought about this quite a bit. Inactive Account Manager will allow you to decide what happens to your google products at a very granular level. Delete email, but share photos with family, and destroy Google Wave account. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Facebook introduced the ability to completely delete the account upon hearing that you’ve died #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
For everything else, there’s the courts, and/or a digital vault to bequeath accounts to your family. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
There are no standards because every service handles every deletion differently. https://t.co/LDXufF0W44 is a service that can tell you how to delete your account for a bunch of services. “If you’re in Animal Crossing community you’re shit out of luck.” #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Who are our users? Who are going to be our users? The internet will be populated with zombie accounts that we leave floating in cyberspace. If you want to be memorialized, go for it. If you want to be buried in a memory stick graveyard, go for it. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
https://t.co/ahvVtDYBIr can crate a digital avatar of you that your loved ones can converse with. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Season 2 episode 1 of Black Mirror deals with this idea of being able to chat and video chat with him #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
You knew this digital afterlife talk would end up discussing Black Mirror. #ias18
— Dylan Wilbanks, now at @dylanw@xoxo.zone (@dylanw) March 23, 2018
The most that we can store of ourselves are facets of ourselves. Who we are is more than the sum of those facets. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
“Oh my god how many onboarding jobs have we done? ‘We need to gamify parental controls’”. We need to think about the end. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Joe Macleod @mrmacleod has a book called “Ends” that discusses how we move on and let go. #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Yes. I do.
Paper one on Amazon
E-book on Smashwords and everywhere else. https://t.co/JJUohbI8IB
It considers all aspects of consumer off-boarding.
Its overlooked, yet vital.Thanks for mention & support! pic.twitter.com/XJudAH2FUw
— Joe Macleod 🔚 (@mrmacleod) March 23, 2018
We’re here at IA Summit. The summit is like family. Except last year @albertatrebla missed both the summit and Euro IA due to her mother’s death. The whole time Facebook was helpfully reminding her of her mom’s birthday. She stopped using Facebook #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
It can be easier to leave a service than stay for the pain. Don’t be that person that makes someone else go through painful experiences. Think about the end #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Alberta’s steps personally: Make a plan for how to deal with accounts. Shut down accounts you’re not using. At work they pay a lot of attention on how to train colleagues to handle bereavement services #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
"I have won a world championship in giving advice to others that I won't follow myself" – @albertatrebla (and so say us all) #ias18
— Richard Dalton (@mauvyrusset) March 23, 2018
Draw on the collective experiences of our own lives and our clients to prevent people from having to repeat themselves and continually be hit by grief #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Look at how we can recommend standards for the management of user accounts so that if we think about a kill switch down the line it’s easier to implement #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Shout out to @meyerweb for his work around inadvertent algorithmic cruelty https://t.co/GqJyBb6UcM – his other work around this, Design for Real Life (with @sara_ann_marie) is also excellent for these kinds of problems #ias
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018
Someone in the audience also mentioned that a pet food store (chewy?) provided a number for cancel orders that led to a grief counselor and the company sent flowers. There are compassionate ways like this to handle the news #IAS18
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) March 23, 2018