If I Die - The App!

Digital death and digital estate law are in their infancy as distinct "industries." The first professional conference to discuss the issues was last year in the UK. I have been thinking about death and online life since 2004. I was at AOL at the time, and we were brainstorming how to present cloud technology to AOL members. It struck me that even in the early 2000s we were encouraging people to put insurance information, health information, financial portfolios and other sensitive personal information online so that they could access it anywhere. What happens though when you die? If your survivors don't know your passwords or digital services you used, how can they find vital information that they may need?

And then there's the question of memorial services that could turn anyone's life into a documented piece of history. The funeral industry could provide a way to make it easy for people to create a web page that would be an online accompaniment to a specific grave or mausoleum internment - one that would let individuals say something about their lives themselves.

Fast forward a few years and now comes a facebook app that let's you create a video message to which you've assigned trustees to release it once you're gone. What do you think of this?