The importance of Digital Afterlife Planning is growing as more people realize that their digital lives are a huge part of their physical existence and they don’t want their online selves lost when they die. It is not easy for families and friends to access digital legacy after one’s death. Laws in the US and other countries are vague on rights to online assets after death, leading to legal wrangling if the survivors want access to the online services and assets.
“There are a few digital afterlife services today that help in either digital estate planning, or sending out posthumous emails, or help build online memorials. However, there is a need for a comprehensive service that addresses all of the Afterlife challenges of our time. World Without Me is a platform built to service three prime needs of the Digital 21st century- Privacy on the Internet, Digital Legacy for all and Secure & Curated Digital Afterlife.” said Bhaskar Thakur, the founder of World Without Me.
“After researching the options available, I realized to effectively plan my digital afterlife I would have to register with several different digital estate planning websites as most of these websites offer different afterlife services but not all. Also, there was no service to mashup and curate my online and offline digital footprint. World Without Me fills this gap. It’s a cool site where you can connect with those that matter, pull your Facebook updates, Tweets, emails and documents on one platform and curate your Digital Afterlife socially- we call it Percial- Personal Social” added Bhaskar.
According to Pew Internet, Emailing and Interacting on Social platforms are among the top activities Americans do online. World Without Me Footprint let’s one archive email, documents, Facebook Updates and Tweets and that is about 70-80% of a typical person’s Digital Footprint. Over the next few months, World Without Me will expand to archive from more platforms.
There are 3 aspects to planning Digital Afterlife. First, archiving everything of significance right from email and social activity to documents into a kind of autobiography. Second, making sure the data is safe and finally, deciding who gets access to an individual’s digital footprint after their death. World Without Me tools like Footprint, Vault and Trigger help to archive, create and assign Digital Assets.
Since the launch of World Without Me Beta in September, about 1000 users have tested the website. According to Bhaskar, the website has received encouraging feedback and thumbs up from Beta Testers and experts alike. World Without Me plans full launch on November 1, 2011.
About the Author
Bhaskar Thakur is Entrepreneur, Social Media Evangelist.and founder of World Without Me, world’s first Percial (Personal – Social) platform with solutions for Digital Afterlife and Private Internet. WorldWithoutMe.com empowers users with tools to plan their Digital Afterlife and Live Digitally Forever, Create autobiography on the go from their digital footprint and participate in Private Discussions.
