What happens to your content after you die?

What will happen to the content you generate after you die?

That was the key question behind the core conversation “Who Will Check My Email After I Die?” The conversation was moderated by John Romano of Capstrat and Matt Ludwig of mLdesign, who discussed what happens to your “digital assets” should the unexpected happen.

One part of the issue is the terms of service of sites such as flickr, Facebook or any other social networking or sharing site. Romano provided Flickr as an example because their terms of service state that the account will be deleted should they find out a person has indeed passed away. One concern that arose was what a family member could or should to retrieve the digital data a loved one may have left behind. Romano and Ludwig suggested they could contact the company, but it is more difficult with major sites whereas a smaller social network community might be more willing to allow someone to retrieve the data.

Sites like Great Goodbye send out an email to the recipients of your choosing after you pass away, but for a fee, of course. Nonetheless, Romano said some consider it to be a good thing to do to provide closure and access to your friends and/or family. It could also be a way to tie loose ends such as if you happened to get in an argument with someone and then you or they pass away the next day without having resolved an issue.

Nonetheless, there were some members of the audience who argued that there is enough “noise” on the web and allowing accounts of those who passed away to remain might just clog up servers. Another audience member said privacy is still important, even after a person dies. Not everyone may want their information shared after they pass away.

Another attendee said there are two streams of content: assests and memories. Family members may want those memories such as images you may have posted onto Flickr, for example. However, when it comes to assests, those that generate revenue, for example, could have their Creative Commons licenses changed so offspring can receive compensation.

Because digital content stored on the web is so new, there are not many answers to whether sites should archive data of those who have passed away or allow families to access it.

Morning Bits

We’re getting closer! Only 7 days left until SXSWi…are you ready? Here is today’s tech news:

 

For those of us with a Blackberry: Facebook 1.5 is here. According to The Boy Genius Report, the three biggest changes are the integration with the Blackberry Message, Calendar and Contacts. As far as message upgrade allows the user to view Facebook messages from an inbox instead of navigating around. The Calendar App takes all your events and birthdays and downloads them to a calendar labeled, appropriately enough, “Facebook”. The third feature, Contacts, integrates Facebook friends and Blackberry contacts. Another feature is that Facebook friends can now be called from the “Friends” screen. This app also lets Blackberry users comment on a friend’s Facebook status, which was not possible before.

 

 Speaking of new apps, Amazon launched an iPhone app for the Kindle. The app is free and allows users to download  and read e-book purchased on Amazon. The download is free and opens in a small window that asks for your  Amazon account info. It brings up your archived books and adds your iPhone to the Kindle page for free. The app  allows you  to scroll back and forth, jump between sections, change text size and add bookmarks. John Biggs of  TechCrunch reviews the app here.

 

Here are some other interesting stories making the rounds on the web:

• The Supreme Court enters the YouTube era
• Facebook Adds Twitter-like tools
• YouTube wants to kill MTV

And here’s a look at the fake videogame Wii breakfast:

Morning Bits: March 2nd

Happy Monday to everyone! It is a beautiful day in the Austin area, not only because the is weather fantastic but because today begins the 10 day countdown to SXSW. Here to keep you on the same wavelength are some recent SXSWi related news stories.

In recent tech news…..

Zuora’s Z-Commerce for Facebook

Zuora brings a new billing subscription service to Facebook. Z-Commerce for Facebook handles all aspects of transforming your application to a subscription service. It will define subscription products and rate plans, process customer orders, handle invoices and payments and enable access. In return, Zuora asks for 2 percent of each subscription. 

With Z-Commerce for Facebook, you can:

• Transform your existing application to a subscription service.
• Generate recurring revenue.
• Increase trialability with lower upfront costs.
• Easily offer both free and premium versions of your product.
• Enable customers to change their rate plans and update their billing information.

 

Create Custom Video Playlists with Embedr

Embedr is a privately owned and publicly used custom web video playlist creation company.

Their free service allows users to create custom video playlists from all their favorite video websites and Embed them anywhere else on the web.

Embedr’s widget helps easily share multiple videos on your blog or website. 

If you are a serial video blogger, this tool helps to eliminate clutter on your site and prevent the annoyance of continually scrolling down in order to watch all the clips you are sharing.

Embedr can pull videos from third-party services like YouTube, MySpace Video, DailyMotion, MetaCafe, Veoh, Vimeo, Blip.tv and more. 

 

In recent SXSWi news….

Rohdesign Blog

For last year’s SXSW Interactive Festival, Mike Rohdes created 34 pages of amazing sketchnotes that captured concentrated concepts from each of the sessions.

This year, SXSWi has invited Rohdes to design the special souvenir canvas tote given to all Interactive registrants.

You can find more details on his design concepts and ideas for the SXSW Interactive ’09 tote bag at his blog Rohdesign.

 

Last Chance to Win Free SXSWi Registration

There only 10 days left until the SXSW Interactive Festival, which means it is the last chance to sign up for free registration. Sign up to receive the monthly SXSW Interactive Festival newsletter. The newsletter will include a trivia question about SXSW that must be answered correctly in order for your name to be thrown into the drawing for this month’s freebie. The next newsletter is scheduled for release later today.

SO much happening.. so little time!

After initially printing the SxSw Interactive panel schedule, I grabbed a highlighter and set off to narrow down my choices. After a few minutes it became apparent that much more of the page was hilighted than wasn’t. Still.. a select few were hilighted, underlined and circled.

One of those select few panels is “What Do I Do With Myself, Now that the Economy Has Collapsed?” which is being held Sunday, March 15th at 3:30. This panel holds obvious appeal to a student planning on entering the job market in the near future. Sitting on the panel is Andy Baio, a writer for Waxy.org, Lane Backer, president of Get Satisfaction Inc, Ben Brown of XOXCO, Jane Mount of 20×200, and Michael Sippy, VP of production at Six Apart Ltd. I am specfically interested to hear Michael Sippy speak. Six Apart is the world’s leading blogging software and services company. The company was founded in 2001 by two bloggers. I would be interested to hear both the personal and professional advice the panelists, who sat in our same boat not long ago, have to offer.

I’m also making a point of attending the panel “How Social Networks Are Killing the Revolution.” The title of the panel alone intrigues me. The panel will discuss how social media sites give the illusion of a “false majority-view mentality” and actually hinders accomplishing any real large scale change in the world. After being asked to join countless “1,000,000 strong for [insert random cause]” facebook groups, I would be very intersted to hear what actual change, if any, social media sites help ignite.

South By Morning Bits

Can you believe there are only 23 more days until SXSW Interactive? Believe me, we can’t, because the team at South By Texas State is in a frenzy to get you the information you need to stay SXSWi savvy.

OK, maybe we aren’t running in circles screaming for content, but we will start bringing you daily morning updates on tech news related to SXSWi in what we like to call South By Morning Bits. As the day rolls along, we will also give you a snapshot of what we at sxtxstate.com are looking forward to seeing at the conference. The Interactive schedule is finally up, so you can start googling that panelist, follow them on Twitter or take a gander at their Facebook page.

Onward with the news…

• Facebook has been in the headlines recently since they update their Terms of Service February 4, which has caused quite a stir among privacy advocates. However, Zuckerberg tried to calm fears by those saying Facebook owns your information now and forever in a blog post that attempts to clarify the changes. The issue of privacy will be one of the hot topics at SXSWi with panels focused on the topic, namely one on Saturday, March 14 titled Is Privacy Dead or Very Confused?. PC World: Facebook’s Zuckerberg Calms Privacy Fears Over TOS Change.
• Skype and Nokia are the latest pair to announce a partnership for mobile devices. Nokia’s N97, which is scheduled to be released later this year, will have the popular Internet calling software installed. This is just one of the many new developments in mobile technology, much like the recent Flash for mobile announcement  at the Mobile World Congress, that will be highlighted at SXSW. Rob Gonda of Sapient will discuss mobile technology at his panel March 14. ZDNET: Skype Strikes Deal With Nokia.