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Digital Legacy Conference 2018 – Press Release

We have put together a press release for this year’s Digital Legacy Conference. Feel free to copy and paste the copy onto your website. Alternatively download the text (as a .doc) and use the images provided when referencing the Digital Legacy Conference. If you download the press release it will save as a .ZIP file. simply open it and use the media provided. To download the press release click here.

The Digital Legacy Conference 2018

Press Release (August 2018)

We are spending an increasing amount of our lives online. The sentimental and monetary value of the content we upload, share and purchase is increasing year on year….But what happens to our online world when we die?

The Digital Legacy Conference explores societies attitudes and behaviours around death, dying, bereavement and the internet. This annual conference is ran by the Digital Legacy Association who operate from London. This year’s conference will examine how a variety of professions such as the legal, social care, healthcare and funeral care are changing their practice in order to better support the general public. This year’s conference will share best practice and recent research whilst asking questions about how these areas can improve and evolve.

On the 27th October 2018 the Digital Legacy Conference will take place at Siena College, Albany New York. This will be the first time that the conference has taken place outside of Europe and the Digital Legacy Association are looking forward to working with Siena College’s social care department to address this increasingly important area.

Siena College is a private, co-educational liberal arts college in the Franciscan and Catholic tradition. Siena is committed to offering the Education for a Lifetime for a new generation of leaders eager to create a more just, peaceful and humane world.

The Digital Legacy Conference call for speakers is now open. Those with relevant professional experience, case studies, research or stories should apply to participate at: http://www.digitallegacyconference.com/speakers

We also encourage policy makers, technologists, the legal sector and all those who support the general public with estate planning, palliative care, bereavement and end of life to attend.

More information and free tickets to attend the conference can be reserved at: www.DigitalLegacyConference.com

Click here to download The Digital Legacy Conference Press Release for your website or blog – October 2018

Call for papers – Digital Legacy Conference 2018

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The call for speakers and papers is now open for academics and professionals working and innovating within relevant fields. If you would like to submit a paper and speak at this year’s Digital Legacy Conference please fill in the form below.

Some of the subject matters you may want to address?

⇝ Digital death and it’s impact on society
⇝ Digital legacy, digital assets and digital estates
⇝ Grieving online
⇝ Digital graveyards,
⇝ Utilising technology to deal with death
⇝ Digital memory loss
⇝ Death in today’s digital world
⇝ Funeral streaming
⇝ Laws and terms of service around digital assets and digital legacy
⇝ Preparing for our own digital death
⇝ Artificial Intelligence and death
⇝ Robotics and death
⇝ Death, Cryptocurrency and other digital financial assets
⇝ Death and Virtual Reality
⇝ Whats next?
⇝ Best practice
⇝ Diffusion of information and adoption
⇝ The patients perspective
⇝ The role of the professional

Do you have another idea? Inspire us!

Applicants will be informed by email whether or not their application has been successful in September.

About the Digital Legacy Conference

The Digital Legacy Conference is an International Conference by the Digital Legacy Association. The objective of the Digital Legacy Conference is for professionals and academics working with in the field to share knowledge, best practice, case studies and stories. The conference is free for attendees due to the support provided by the sponsors: www.DigitalLegacyConference.com

About the Digital Legacy Association

thee Digital Legacy Association is the professional body dedicated to raising the quality of end of life care in all areas relating to digital assets, digital estates and digital legacy. Our mission is to help ensure that everyone’s end of life wishes are met both in the real world and the digital realm. We do this by supporting the general public, by developing standards, frameworks and toolkits with charities and third party organisations.

What areas do you want to be addressed at the Digital Legacy Conference, NY 2018?

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Get in touch and let us know your thoughts! https://digitallegacyassociation.org/contact

Your digital legacy: an emerging aspect of advance care planning

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As part of Commentary’s special feature on end-of-life care, James Norris, founder of the Digital Legacy Association, examines how a patient’s digital footprint is an increasingly common part of advance care planning.

The internet has been the biggest catalyst for change since the industrial revolution. It has changed the ways in which we consume and share information and, in doing so, the ways in which we interact with one another has changed forever. Recent Ofcom statistics reveal that adults in the UK now spend on average 22.9 hours a week online, with those aged 16–24 spending 35.2 hours a week online.

While online, many share personal thoughts, photos and videos on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Prior to the internet, photos and videos existed only as physical assets (eg as photo albums, photo frames, video cassettes etc). Now, social media and connected devices (like mobile phones) allow these assets to be uploaded and shared online (often referred to as ‘in the cloud’). This allows conversations to break free of previous constraints and take place in real time. This enables friends and family members who may live many miles away to stay connected with their loved ones on a regular basis.

The Digital Legacy Association was launched three years ago at Hospice UK’s conference in Liverpool. It was apparent that people were not making suitable plans for their digital estate and that increased awareness, support literature, lobbying and training was required at a national level.

What is a digital legacy?

Upon death, the deceased person’s digital footprint (the digital information left online) and other media available about the deceased helps to form their ‘digital legacy’. For many people, the deceased’s digital legacy plays an important part in the mourning process. In the UK the deceased’s Facebook profile often becomes the main focal point to remember and share stories about a loved one.

Our Digital Death Survey indicates that the importance we place on our being able to view social media accounts following someone’s death is increasing year on year. For example, when respondents were asked: ‘If someone you care about were to die, how important would it be for you to be able to view their social media profiles?’ 45.2% of respondents replied ‘important’ or ‘very important’ in 2017, up from 37.3% in 2014.

What are digital assets?

The term ‘digital assets’ can refer to items such as music purchased through Apple, eBooks purchased through Amazon or photos and videos captured on mobile phone. It is increasingly important that the general public make plans for what should happen to their digital assets and their digital footprint in the event of death. Making suitable plans can help ensure sentimental photos, videos and documents are still accessible and not lost upon death. Pre-planning can also ensure that assets that are of monetary value, such as business files and purchased media, are still accessible.

Our research shows that most people are not making sufficient plans and as a result their digital assets – those of sentimental and monetary value – are being lost. When questioned in our surveys, 97% of respondents had made no plans to protect their digital assets.

Conversations about assets and legacy

It is important that healthcare and social care professionals speak with patients about their digital lives when having advance care planning conversations. For some people, simply telling a loved one the password for their mobile device before losing the ability to do so may be a suitable plan. However, more regular users of technology (who may use social media, gaming or have money stored and spent in PayPal, eBooks, music libraries etc) may prefer to document their wishes in a social media will.

Planning ahead

Our research indicates that the sentimental value placed on people’s digital legacy will continue to increase each year. While working for the Digital Legacy Association, I have often received the feedback that these issues are ‘very important for the younger generation’. Although we fully agree with this statement, one in four people over the age of 65 in the UK say that they are active on social media (Office for National Statistics 2016), and so we argue that digital asset and digital legacy planning is an important area for everyone regardless of age, religion, gender or creed.

James Norris is the founder of the Digital Legacy Association, a professional body dedicated to raising the quality of end-of-life care in all areas relating to the proection of digital assets and digital legacy.

This article appears in the February 2018 ‘End-of-life care’ issue of Commentary.
The original version of this article can be found here

Digital Legacy Conference 2018 – USA

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We are delighted to announce that this year’s Digital Legacy Conference will take place in the USA. More details to come.

Digital Legacy is addressed by Joan Bakewell for an hour on the BBC

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Joan Bakewell discusses all things digital legacy for her ‘We Need To Talk About Death’ series. The episode can be listened to here

Call for speakers

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The call for speakers and papers for the Digital Legacy Conference 2018 will begin in January 2018. The next conference is due to take place in June 2018.

Ian Bond of Higgs and Sons Legal speaking on behalf of The Law Society

Digital Legacy Conference 2018

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Information about the Digital Legacy Conference 2018 is coming soon.

Thank you for attending… what an incredible day!

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Thank you for attending… what an incredible day!

The Digital Legacy Conference addresses, highlights and celebrates work that is being carried out in areas relating to digital legacy and digital assets. Read a review from this year’s conference below:

Read the full review by clicking here

Thank you to our wonderful sponsors and speakers

Digital Legacy Conference 2016 was free to attend took place thanks to the kindness of St Joseph’s Hospice, Seddon Smith Accountants and Leverton & Sons. We would like to thank the following speakers who contributed their time and expertise:

⏳ James Norris – Digital Legacy Association & DeadSocial.

⏳ Jane Harris Edmonds – Beyond Goodbye.

⏳ Dr Mark Taubert – NHS Wales & Velindre Cancer Centre.

⏳ Gary Rycroft – Dying Matters & Jospeh A. Jones Solicitors.

⏳ Peter Billingham – Death Goes Digital.

⏳ Evan Carroll – Your Digital Afterlife.

The Digital Legacy Conference is an annual, not for profit conference ran by: The Digital Legacy Association. This year it took taking place during Dying Matters Awareness Week.

All of the photos can be viewed here https://www.facebook.com/pg/DigitalLegacyAssociation/photos/?tab=album&album_id=245304605825006

Digital Legacy Facebook Event page is now LIVE!

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You can now register for a free ticket and join the event on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/1631936163737680/