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Mourning goes digital: Irish undertaker introduces funeral streaming
It's unfortunate, but sometimes when a friend or relative dies, not everyone can make the trip to attend the funeral. This is one instance where technology can be big help, since a live webcast of the services is a relatively easy thing to set up. An undertaker in Northern Ireland is the first funeral home (that we know of) to officially offer online streaming of funerals.
Jim Clarke of Clarke & Son undertakers outside of Belfast says he was often asked by faraway friends or relatives of the departed if he could make tapes of funerals, which he gladly obliged. Live streaming was the obvious next step. Clarke now offers streamed funerals, accessible anywhere in the world, at three levels of quality to cater to different connection speeds — for no additional charge. Of course, the webcasts aren't public; passwords are required to access specific streams, and the files are streams, not downloads, so there's no archiving or saving.
This is an excellent idea for funeral homes (better than the Cocoon Coffin, anyway), and deserves to catch on. We even wouldn't mind seeing wedding planners and others get in on the webcasting thing, as long as people remember it's an option when circumstances keep you away from important events, not an excuse to skip them. Got that, Mark?
Clarke & Son, via The Globe and Mail
By stacey at 5:48 PM ON 02/18/09
Hi, my name is Stacey and I am a BA Design student doing my final year project on death and bereavement.
I have not lost anybody, however i do feel this area is one that is close to my heart. My mother is a paliative care nurse and we have lived most of our lives in a very small community, i have therefore witnessed the passing of many people through my life and would love my final year project to aid in making the process of losing someone slightily eaisier. Your article has inspired me to think about this digital world as a space for people to grieve.
An area which i feel there is little information or support in, is dealing with the persons digital presence and virtual friends after death. I have begun to question weather we should have a virtual will which allows a person to state which networks, assets and friends are important to them. This will would then notify all social networks and websites of a person's death and organize their digital presence, following the instructions left in this virtual will.
Therefore removing this responsibility from a grieving family.
It also looks at the idea of creating a community which consists of people's online presence after death, perhaps taking the form of a virtual forest, in which a person's data could take the form of tribute and archive. Each person would have a tree which would grow as people talked and commented. This could perhaps give people who them knew both physically and virtually a paticular space within the virtual world where they could both grieve and remember a lost loved one.
Any comments or advice would be much appreciated.
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stacey:
Hi, my name is Stacey and I am a BA Design student doing my final year project on death and bereavement. I have n...More »