Planning your digital afterlife today

An exhibit in Amsterdam asks the question: what happens to our online profiles after we die?

The most interesting part about the "Ik R.I.P." (I R.I.P.) exhibit in Amsterdam is what's not there: the website www.ikrip.nl . What about the digital afterlife? When we die, what happens to our profiles on social networking sites like Hyves, LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Sugarbabes or Happyvpro.nl? Will our photos still be on Flickr? Our videos on YouTube?

The website www.ikrip.nl invites people to register a digital testament where you can determine what happens to your internet profiles after you die. You can choose to have all your accounts deleted, or what kind of digital trace you want to leave behind. You can decide who has the right to change your data on the internet. Or you can compose a message to be transmitted in your name after your death.

"When people go on social networking sites it is mostly for dating or chatting. The kind of things people do when they are alive," says Willem Velthoven of Mediamatic.net , which set up the exhibit. "It is part of the internet growing up that we are now starting to think about what happens after we die."

The problem is real enough. A social network like Hyves has almost 8 million members - 7 million in the Netherlands. Statistically speaking, Hyves members are dying every day. So what happens to their merry pages?

In theory, says Hyves ceo Raymond Spanjar, "it is up to the surviving relatives to decide whether the profile stays up or not." If they want the profile deleted they just have to send the death certificate to Hyves' help desk.

Of course, only so many people will take the trouble to do that. So it is safe to assume that there are currently thousands of dead Hyvers online.

A spokesperson for LinkedIn, the professional networking site with 35 million members worldwide, says profiles of dead pople are removed if their friends of relatives tell customer service that the person is deceased.

On Facebook (150 million members), profiles of deceased members are moved to something called the 'Memorial State'. Profiles are removed from all Facebook groups and they only show up for people who were friends with the person on Facebook. Facebook is not saying how long the 'Memorial State' will last.

The Amsterdam exhibit features cardboard DIY caskets that visitors are invited to try out. There is also a photo exhibit of the work of Elizabeth Heyert, featuring real-life embalmed Americans, and another of the colourful caskets of Ghana.

› "Ik R.I.P. - dood, internet en zelfrepresentatie," until April 29, 2009 at the Vijzelstraat 68 in Amsterdam. See: www.mediamatic.net and www.ikrip.nl.

R.I.P Mediamatic from inge willems on Vimeo.