Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:36:51 -0400
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Death and Facebook: Memorialized Profiles:

Geekosystem continues the conversation the New York Times started in its article about death and Facebook and the interesting questions that arise when the two intersect. No, this isn’t an article about “internet suicide,” in which someone attempts to remove themselves from all aspects of online social networking and community. This article looks to explore how the one-employee-for-every-350,000-Facebook-users team can manage a very sensitive issue better in the future.

“At the moment, a dead person’s profile will sit unchanged (that is, unless the person’s survivors have their passwords), and it will continue to show up in the profiles and home pages of that profile’s friends. The deceased’s survivors can either have the page removed, or “memorialize” it, which requires them to fill out this form, and include a link to an obituary or news article as proof of the person’s death.

“Ms. Chin said Facebook was considering using software that would scan for repeated postings of phrases like ‘Rest in peace’ or ‘I miss you’ on a person’s page and then dispatch a human to investigate that account.

“We are testing ways to implement software to address this,” she said. “But we can’t get it wrong. We have to do it correctly.”

How do you think Facebook can best deal with this? And what do you think about the future of media technology, especially as more issues like death that were previously experienced by a small circle of people “IRL” are being experienced by an increasing number of people through online communities?

Find by Katie / Post by Stefanie