The online classroom of UH 300-001, Andy Duncan's fall 2013 science fiction seminar in the Honors College of the University of Alabama.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Cory Doctorow on "The Internet of the Dead"
Doctorow's latest column for Locus Onlineis a fascinating account of his attempt to do right by a dead friend, by preserving the friend's computer records -- a more complicated task than you might think, and one with societal implications.
This is actually something that I'd given some thought to before. Having had several friends die young, it really is an issue that can't be handled lightly. Not only is there the matter of dealing with physical data such as the hard drives, computers, and physical storage but online data should also be considered. For myself, it is strange to see spam on the facebook wall of a dead friend. Especially if online accounts were protected with a password only known by the deceased, who has the authority to close online memberships to magazines, social networking, or remove google search results?
I imagine that in the near future there will be some legislation to regulate how a deceased person's online persona will be kept around and how it should be terminated, if at all. How this legislation will look is beyond me. Some use social media as a reminder of their loved ones, while some want to erase their online presence.
This is actually something that I'd given some thought to before. Having had several friends die young, it really is an issue that can't be handled lightly. Not only is there the matter of dealing with physical data such as the hard drives, computers, and physical storage but online data should also be considered. For myself, it is strange to see spam on the facebook wall of a dead friend. Especially if online accounts were protected with a password only known by the deceased, who has the authority to close online memberships to magazines, social networking, or remove google search results?
ReplyDeleteI imagine that in the near future there will be some legislation to regulate how a deceased person's online persona will be kept around and how it should be terminated, if at all. How this legislation will look is beyond me. Some use social media as a reminder of their loved ones, while some want to erase their online presence.