This conference is full of provoking discourse around the social, cultural and practical implications of Death in the Digital World.  Stimulating a reconsideration of how death, mourning, memories and history are currently being augmented in our technologically mediated society.The archiving, networking and post mortem engagement of ‘digital remains’ leads us to consider what place digital information has in our lives legally, sentimentally and historically.

For this event we are reaching out to the range of companies based in Silicon Valley with millions of users to find the persons within those companies who deal with the user-exeperience around memorialized sites and legal council addressing issues of access and management of desesased user accounts.   

Digital Death Day is imediately following the Internet Identity Workshop May 3-5 in Mountain View at the Computer History Museum.  The May 5th will be particularly focused on the Personal Data Ecosystem and efforts to archive/log people's digital data.  People attending DDD are encouraged to attend IIW & this day in particular. 

These are some of question around "digital death" that will be considered.

• What does it mean for loved ones of the departed?
• What does it mean for professionals in end of life care and post mortem services?
• What does it mean for online tool and service providers?
• What does it mean for estate and legacy planners?
• What do people do to prepare for their own deaths in relationship to their online life?
• What do friends and relatives do with the digital assets of a loved one when they die?  What if aspects of their online life were secret or just not understood?
• What does it mean for governments and public records?
• What businesses are serving this market?

Why are we just asking questions here - aren't there going to be "panels" with the answers?

Well this is a different kind of conference - at this conference all the people who attend are the participants and together at 9am the day of the event are facilitated through a process that creates a multi-track conference agenda about this theme. 

The range and diversity of participants will mean that there will be many rich discussions about all these topic areas. “Answers” will be found in the discussions in the collective wisdom of the group.   Notes will be gathered from all of the sessions, aggregated, posted online and shared with all attendees. Some times this form is called an unconference. 

This event is for:

• People planning their Digital Wills
• Online Social Networks
• Companies offering services for digital afterlife management
• Death Care Professionals
• Estate Planners
• Legacy Planners
• End of Life Planners
• Death Attorneys
• Hospice volunteers
• Clergy

Kaliya Hamlin is the designer and facilitator of both events and both are professional unconferences.

If you would like more information about the event or the sponsorship opportunities available e-mail Jennifer Holmes - info@digitaldeathday.com