What is a digital legacy?

The blogosphere is full of questions about this. Some define it as saving passwords on the assumption that your demise will be too sudden or painful to allow an opportunity to pass them on. Others say it is everything you have ever typed, txt'd or spoken on a phone.

Passwords could be written down and secured in a safe place. Maybe you have too many passwords? Maybe you change them frequently (I'm not sure it matters much as long as they are strong. If quantum computing moves into the domain of hackers, your password will never be strong enough, or changed often enough to thwart them.

I have a small number of strong, but easy to remember passwords I use for billing accounts and critical email. I also have weak, easy to remember passwords I use for "fluff" accounts. (You know the free ones that only want your eyeballs (and proof that you have eyeballs so they can justify their CPM rates to advertisers.)

There is a growing list of password management tools. OpenID, Roboform, and KeePass to name a few. The concept is simple, a very strong generated-password using facts that only you would know for verification and recovery. If you bank or trade stocks online, you have probably encountered these without realizing it. Maybe your spouse or trustees should know what model your first car was, or the name of your favorite pet, teacher, etc.

I anticipate that this annoying password game will be obsoleted someday. Microsoft/Apple/Google/etc. will use AI, personal knowledge (that they can get from Facebook) and your DNA stored in the RFID in your septum.

A more serious question to consider is "what" you leave behind - digital legacy or digital detritus? Or your private memories, stories and personal messages to those you care about. Randy Pausch's, oft-quoted remark said it best. ... I could put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children...

What is a story?

To be a person is to have a story to tell. Isak Dinesen

When I was younger, I could remember anything,
whether it was true or not. Mark Twain

Some people think we're made of flesh and blood and bone. Scientists think we're made of atoms. I think we're made of stories. When we die, stories are what people remember, the stories of our lives and the stories we told. Ruth Stotter

Out of the blue and into the black.
Once you're gone, you never come back.
Neil Young, from the album Rust Never Sleeps

Create, Preserve and Share Your Story at Online Legacy

Leave a Ripple

A legacy is a gift to the future often formed in words and pictures. A legacy is not an obituary (a contrite factual tribute usually written by a stranger for a newspaper). If there is a story in an obituary, it ends badly. So, rather than dwell on that story, create your own ripple for future generations with a legacy story.
Perhaps you are concerned or doubtful that anyone would be interested in your life or your stories. A good way to frame your mind, is to imagine that a favorite friend, child or perhaps an unborn grandchild will be the recipient of your story. It’s a good bet that their life will be touched by your gift.
A good story has a few key elements: character (or characters), intent (goals, desires, expectations), a catharsis (a significant event or conflict that changes the characters and the reader) and details (or the denouement to use a fancy word). There are many categories that could apply:

* Your first day at school – did a parent or grandparent take you?
* Your best friend growing up. Your best friend today.
* Your first date, your first love, your first child ..
* A significant academic, athletic or professional event ..
* A loss – your first funeral service, something more recent..

In fact there are probably too many categories. Let your mind linger on a few and a good story is certain to emerge. Your goal is not to document everything that ever happened to you – that could take a lifetime to write and another lifetime to read. No, the goal is to convey something special about your life in a story. And at the end of this effort, you may discover the true reward of creating a legacy story - a better understanding of your own life.

Online Legacy is developing technology to assist you in this process. You could can read books on the subject, then force yourself to put aside the distractions of the day, someday. Or you can spend a few minutes at Online Legacy to start a process to create and preserve your ripple across time. Follow the link to learn about Online Legacy.