A couple I’ve grown fond of…recently went through the loss of a loved one, as is the way of the world we come to find out as we grow up.

The husband posed a question involving the online contact information of his loved one, something that really a decade ago wasn’t something we had experienced at that point in time.

Death and Web2.0.

My own experience with my mother’s passing was post-gopher/pre-Yahoo.  It was two weeks after she’d passed my cousin quietly took out the microcassette from my parents’ answering machine…father never had reason to call home after, and nobody had the heart to leave a message to draw his attention to the machine where he’d realize…

…her voice was still greeting callers.

In 2001 a dear friend and former roommate passed.  We’d been involved in a few online e-zine projects with other people, who later carried on with same until it petered out on it’s own.  But bloggers are another matter, prone to individualism and solitary craft.

I made it a point of providing my son with a means of knowing one password…to one file and one file only…to be only opened one week after my demise.  That file contains site accounts, user IDs, and passwords for everything involved with my online activity.

Even though I may not be here, with little effort and maintenance it’s possible that my residual income may in time grow to a nice nestegg for my children if untouched.

There’s also the matter of email, most of us while maintaining our own URLs continue to maintain Gmail, Hotmail, Ymail, or other free (for the moment) services.  Myself I can’t see someone sifting through it all even monthly after a few years…can you imagine how much SPAM you’ll be getting by 2020?

While the conversation between friends may end, we’ve all left our mark for the passerby and those seeking out sometimes what we tend to spew in our little virtual homes here.  Granted, nobody will ever do what you do…or thank heavens what I do here for that matter…but the fact of the matter is it’s property.

Content is transferable upon death.  Consider it an asset for your heirs.

Be a responsible blogger.  Plan for your family.

As to my friends questions of what to do with a contact of a loved one?

Well, obviously we don’t have the update or patch to transcend THAT gap.  I look at such periods in life just like when Comcast internet has problems.

I’d just wait til I get to the other side to use them.

Whatever happens, I know in my heart one thing…

…God’s got something better than an iPhone for everyone to stay connected up there.