Digital Information as an heirloom by Rahul Boggaram

DIGITAL INFORMATION AS AN HEIRLOOM

Rahul Boggaram MA Industrial Design 2013 Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design

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If technology is not a metaphor for memory, what is it? Raghava KK

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Increasingly individuals are characterised by a body of digital information, and that information needs to live on for over a period of decades, the rest of our lives beyond the life time of any device you might have. So everybody is going to need somebody to be the custodians of their information. Just like we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t put our money under the mattress anymore, we put it in the bank. So most of us will become a customer of information bank. Paul Martiz of V.M.Ware

Contents Abstract Acknowledgements Report Structure

1 Historical Context (Why Now?) 2 Introduction 2.1 What is it? 2.2 Who is it for? 2.3 Why am I doing this? 3 Hypothesis 4 Heirlooms 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Case studies: objects of emotional presence a. Betel leaf and areca nut crushing utensil inherited by Dr Girish R. Boggaram b. Smoking pipe inherited by John Villar c. Technical pen set inherited by Anton Bob Kraus 4.3 My Heirloom 4.4 Difference between my heirloom and an heirloom 4.5 Value in an heirloom 4.6 Conclusion

5 Hyper-connectivity and Digital identity 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Personal digital possessions • Missing characteristic of a digital possession for it to be an heirloom • Current practices for bequeathing 5.3 Possessions on social networks • Ephemeral possessions • Current methods of archiving

5.4 Possessions of monetary value • Restrictions in DRM rights for bequeathing • Policies cannot keep up • Current methods of bequeathing 5.5 Conclusion 6 Design Response 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Preserve 6.3 Inherit 6.4 View 6.5 Conclusion

7 Evaluation 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Conclusion 8 Conclusion 8.1 So What? 8.2 Summary 8.3 Reflection List of figures References

Abstract

Since the Stone Age people have taken the responsibility of recording important and everyday moments through cave paintings, artefacts, letters, albums and more; custodians have preserved the most valuable of these in their authentic forms. We are now embracing new kinds of possessions. Increasingly, cloud computing and social networks are becoming part of everyday living. We are recording what we do, where we are, who we are with, what we like and so on in digital forms via cloud services. This data provides a rich collection of a personal traits and memories, but many are surprised to know that our digital assets cannot be handed down or outlived, as our accounts are restricted to a username and a password, neither of which can be legally or ethically shared. Late 2012 became the time when mainstream digital technology providers faced a new question of how digital estates could be valuable in a retrospective sense. How are they handled after a person chooses to stop using digital services for various reasons? How are the contents managed after life? How can digital assets be bequeathed? Here I propose a design experience for being selective in preserving, inheriting and ethically handing down digital possessions in their authentic form.

Acknowledgements

This project would never have happened if the following people had not been by my side. My complete gratitude goes to: My parents, Nagarjuna Gupta and Vanaja Arjun, for their continuing support. Dr Matthew Malpass, for his encouragement and guidance from the beginning of the project. The course team, Dr Stephen Hayward, Prof Ralph Ball and Nick Rhodes. My mentor, Luke Forsythe. Dr Girish R. Boggaram and RĂŠmi Perrichon, for their continuous feedback on the project. Hrushikesh Sridhar, for inspiring me with his arrogant attitude towards his virtual presence. And last but not least, my course mates and friends.

Report Structure

Section 1. Setting the scene. Section 2. An introduction to what the project is. Who is it for? Why is it being done? Section 3. A proposed explanation based on the limited evidence available. Section 4. Case studies and personal reflections for understanding the universal characteristics of an heirloom. Section 5. Digital possessions of a different nature, their characteristics and current methods for bequeathing. Section 6. Design response for creating emotional durability for digital assets. Section 7. Evaluation of the service by target audience. Section 8. Personal reflections and next steps for the project.

1 Historical Context (Why Now?)

Humans have always taken responsibility for recording stories and moments in their own ways.

Figure 1 Bhimbetka rock shelters

Fig 2 3rd Millennium BC silver cup

In prehistoric times people carved paintings in their caves. Since the Bronze Age people have embedded meaning into tangible mediums like artefacts. Around the fourth millennium BC writing became a more dependable method of recording. Photography was another medium often used to record moments from the early nineteenth century as it captured more detail than any other traditional medium. Custodians have preserved the most valuable of these in their authentic forms. We are now embracing new kinds of possessions. People born before 1990, will be the only immigrants who had to adopt digital technologies to some extent in their life and will be the only once to distinguish a world without technology. Increasingly, digital technologies, cloud services and social networks are part of everyday living. We are recording what we do, where we are, whom we are with, what we like and more in digital forms via different cloud services. By enabling continual real-time conversations, today’s digital technologies are inevitably creating detailed logs of our pasts: ‘By the end of 2011 there were 1 billion people actively using social networking sites’ (Digital legacy presented at TED Global, 2011). The fact that such figures are growing before us means that we are also implicated in this phenomenon. Such data constitutes a rich collection of a person’s traits and their memories; we are a cloud generation.

The Cloud Generation ‘The volume of digital content stored by cloud hosting providers in the cloud will rise from 2.7 zeta bytes (1zb = 1 billion terabytes) in 2012 to 8zb by 2015.’ (5 Incredible Cloud Computing Statistics, 2012) 2

Research by Rackspace hosting on the cloud generation shows that (Rackspace, 2012): • Britain stashes £2.3bn worth of digital possessions. • Almost a quarter of UK adults estimate that they have digital treasures worth more than £200 per person on a cloud. • 93% said they regularly use cloud-based services. • Almost three quarters of adults store photos on the cloud. • 13% store more than 500 photos. • 48% store music tracks. • 10% store more than 500 tracks. • 44% store financial and legal documents. • An average social network user creates 90 pieces of content a month. • 57% of people talk more online than in real life.

These digital treasures include emotional assets and 53.5% of UK adults have treasured possessions stored online, 30% of British people consider their digital possessions as potential digital inheritance (Rackspace, 2012). Surprisingly, most personal digital assets cannot be safeguarded for handing down or being outlived. Our Digital Rights Management (DRM) rights restrict the bequeathing of and/or our possessions on social networks to a username and a password, which it is neither legal nor ethical to share. Still, 11% either have passwords for their digital treasures in their will or plan to do so (Rackspace, 2012).

Steven Thorpe, partner at Thorpe Solicitors, states, ‘The very real danger is that the valuable contents of private cloud accounts will simply be lost upon the owners death either because the accounts are not known about by others or because access is not possible without the user and password details’ (Rackspace, 2012).

I grew up in a generation of letters, photo albums, cassettes and CDs before arriving to the age of hyper-connectivity and digital assets. Many people have tangible objects, ‘those that were selected by the person to attend to regularly or to have close at hand, that create permanence in the intimate life of a person, and therefore that are most important in making up his or her identity’ (Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981) and/or an event. These are handed down to evocate memories. We inherit them not for their monetary value or artistic quality, but for their associated stories. Heirlooms carry this intangible value of outliving a person and evoking memories, allowing beneficiaries to reminisce about the past. 3

Increasingly, individuals are characterised by a body of digital information, and that information needs to live on for over a period of decades, the rest of our lives beyond the lifetime of any device you might have. So everybody is going to need somebody to be the custodians of their information. Just like we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t put our money under the mattress anymore, we put it in the bank. So most of us will become a customer of an information bank. (Visualizing Life in the Cloud, 2013)

If people were to be selective in preserving and ethically handing down digital possessions like physical heirlooms, current solutions would appear limited and/or unethical. The services used to collect this rich data might not let them exist in their authentic form, or they do not allow people to be selective in archiving assets, or the DRM that we accept when we subscribe restricts bequests.

How can we enable users to be selective in preserving, inheriting and ethically bequeathing digital possessions in their authentic form? How can we unpack these experiences to offer stimuli and create meaningful recall in inherited digital content?

2 Introduction

2.1 What is it?

Digital information as an heirloom, is an attempt to design experiences, to be selective in preserving, inheriting and ethically handing down digital possessions in their authentic form.

2.2 Who is it for?

This project is designed for people who embrace digital life and want to preserve and bequeath their digital possessions. It is designed for people who feel responsible for taking care of their ancestral assets and who think it is important to preserve select moments and choices to convey to future generations. It is for people who view digital possessions as sculptures or possessions of emotional presence. It is for Bruce Willis, who is rumoured to want to bequeath his digital music assets equally to his three daughters (Bruce Willis v Apple, 2012).

2.3 Why do this?

This project started when an unexpected gift came to my door. I photographed every step of unpacking (Figure 3) and uploaded these onto my social network page to show that it was from my parents who had never used the Internet before and learnt how to just to order a gift for their son living abroad. It was truly a memorable moment, a moment I wanted to preserve; I wanted to convey the emotions I went through to my children. What grasped my attention was that the photograph did not attract any comments or likes on my social network page. I realised that something that was immensely meaningful to me was not at all of interest to my friends. Being a custodian of an heirloom, I was inspired to understand the differences between my personal object with its emotional durability and a mundane ephemeral object. With knowledge of tangible heirlooms, a similar approach to digital life might create longevity for digital possessions, evocate memories, convey stories, create a sense of burden and outlive a person.

Fig 3 Documenting the process of unpacking an unexpected gift

3 Hypothesis

By studying analogue heirlooms we learn about the possible necessities relating to digital information as an heirloom.

4 Heirlooms

4.1 Introduction When discussing heirlooms it is desirable to start with a definition, ‘the word has acquired a secondary and popular meaning of items of special, endearing value, such as furniture or pictures, handed down from one generation to the next’ (Heirloom (law) Britannica Online Encyclopaedia, 2012). The receiver of this kind of object is a custodian, in the sense that they do not individually own the object, they only borrow it.

To understand the qualities of an heirloom, ethnography provides an obvious approach. A family member who is an immigrant settled in the United Kingdom, a Spanish man partially settled between the United Kingdom and China and a German friend had the most compelling stories for the ethnographic research used here; they are all custodians and shared the heirlooms and the memories that they convey. The diversity of the interviewee is purposeful since it helps with an understanding of what heirlooms mean to custodians from different cultures, thus allowing the location of universal characteristics.

4.2 Case studies: objects of emotional presence1 a. Betel leaf and areca nut crushing utensil inherited by Dr Girish R. Boggaram (Fig. 4). Girish talked about his heirloom as follows: Out of the most important of the objects that I have received as heirlooms, is a utensil used to crush betel leaves and areca nut. My grandfather ate Paan, a traditional homemade product in India consumed after every meal. This contains betel leaves and areca nuts. I helped him with crushing the leaves and nuts every day using this utensil, as he was old and his teeth were not strong enough. In exchange, I used to receive a very small portion of it and sometimes talk to him in person. The utensil is a link to my memories of the way he lived, the choices he made, and his lifestyle. (Boggaram to Boggaram, 2012)

Meaningful presence - “Use” and “presence” represents two perspectives on what a thing is. While “use” refers to a general description of a thing in terms of what it is used for, “presence” refers to existential definitions of a thing based on how we invite and accept it as a part of our life world. If we ask for the use of a chair, we ask for the purpose with having a chair, what we use chairs for, etc. If we instead ask about the presence of a particular chair in someone’s living room, we are not interested in what chairs in general, or even this particular chair, can be used for, but in the role and meaningfulness of this particular chair as present in this person’s life. (Hallnas & Redstrom, 2002).’ 1

Fig 4

b. Smoking pipe inherited by John Villar (Fig. 5).

Fig 5 12

John Villar discussed his heirloom as follows: An object I personally connect myself to is a smoking pipe from my grandfather. When I was young, my grandpa passed away. I was afraid of losing my family. I was also scared of death, every time I see these objects I keep them close to me because they give the feeling of keeping the person with me. When I look at the objects and pictures I have, I look at that moment I had in them, and they help me understand the time that has passed [...]. The real element that I get from them is that we cannot buy them. Looking at the pipe, we can get this pipe in an antique shop, but that will not be what my grandpa used [...]. If we go to a shop we usually choose an object because we have a connection to it, we like the style, and we like the design. We feel it suits our personality. We do not look for these things in the objects we get from our family. It naturally brings the connection to you, because you know it belongs to someone that actually gave it to you. This is an exciting thing as it brings value and history along with it, to make it special. My grandpa was old. He did not want to smoke anymore. He asked me if I wanted to use the pipe. I told him I would love to, and I am now thinking, the most beautiful part of that moment was that I asked him to teach me how to use it. In my memory, it was him showing me how to light it and use it. (Villar to Boggaram, 2012)

c. A technical pen set inherited by Anton Bob Kraus (Figs. 6 & 7).

Fig 6

Fig 7

Antonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s associations are as follows: I had huge memories of my grandfather based on writing letters because we did not live in the same city. When together, we spent a lot of time sketching and drawing. This pen set evokes memories of me as a young boy learning to write old-fashioned German called SĂźtterlin from my granddad. It was important for me to learn and write the script as it was a secret between the two of us and my brother, so we could react to the letters from him. Only a few people can read this kind of script, and it is not easy. This little secret brought us together. I still use this style of German when I write to my brother to keep it alive and to reminisce about those emotional moments with my granddad. The pen set and the script are links to remembering my secret moments and experiences with my grandfather. (Kraus to Boggaram, 2012)

4.3 My Heirloom Girish R. Boggaram is my cousin and is 20 years older than me. We lived in a joint family with our grandparents. When I approached Girish to request if he could tell me about his most important heirloom he showed me this utensil. I was four years old when my grandfather passed away, so I hardly remember him. My parents had told me about a step on a staircase in our house where my grandfather sat after every lunch, overlooking the road, to eat paan. They also talked about a name (vaka sollu) used by my granddad to refer to 14

his crushing utensil. It is an expression rarely used in our family. As soon as I saw the utensil that Girish had inherited I knew it belonged to my grandfather; he also referred to the utensil as vaka sollu. Nostalgia took me back to the staircase, which had a lot of scratches and dents on one step. The utensil Girish inherited had dents below, which was a cue for me to relate it to the other linked events that I was told about my grandfather. It was, in essence, a missing piece of a link to a story I partially knew and which I had stumbled upon because of this project. This allowed me to reconstruct the story of who my grandfather was as it embodies his personality. The scratches and dents were cues for already known locations and events.

When an heirloom is inherited it comes with layers of memories, a baggage of cues and events that make it valuable for conveying the identity of a person, and an associated story, all of which outlive their owner to evocate inner memories. These are objects in which I am the meaning. It is not the object that matters; it is the emotional presence. Marcel Mauss, a French sociologist and anthropologist, describes in his book Gift the spirit of the thing given: ‘A virtual bond is created when the possessions are transferred. Since the object itself is a person or relates to the person, receiving something from someone is receiving a part of his or her spiritual essence. Whatever the gift is, it retains a magical holdover the recipient’ (Mauss, 2002).

4.4 Difference between my heirloom and an heirloom ‘Memories of the outside world will never have the same tonality as those of home and, by recalling these memories, we add to our store of dreams; we are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost’ (Bachelard 1958 cited in Candlin & Guins, 2009).

When I was talking to John and Anton about their heirlooms they were simply antique objects to me. Here the story or the object did not carry any emotional presence or familiarity for me: ‘It is not about what’s said. It is about what’s not said’ (Hayward to Boggaram, 2012).

John’s smoking pipe and Anton’s pen set convey the time they belong to in the quality, colour and fragility they exhibit. The patina on Anton’s pen set shouts of authenticity. The thumb impressions, scratches on the box and on the nibs show the amount of care taken and the context to which the object belonged. Annotations in a book, scratches on an LP and faded

photographs are some other examples that are apparent on objects of authenticity. These are the features of any antique piece; they are the wear that comes with regular use. They also communicate the time to which it belongs. These facts create value and belief, which in return bring control over space and time. In his book The System of Objects, Jean Baudrillard says, ‘antiques have a specific function, namely “signifying the time”. They help escape in time, in frame of reference to that present moment’ (Baudrillard 1968 cited in Candlin & Guins, 2009).

4.5 Values in an Heirloom Obligation as value Marcel Mauss asserts, ‘What imposes obligation in the present received and exchanged, is the fact that the thing received is not inactive. Even when it has been abandoned by the giver, it still possesses something of him’ (Mauss, 2002). Heirlooms create a sense of burden and obligation. We cannot dispose of them as they are objects of embodiment. We would offend the memory and, in some way, they create the feeling of our ancestors’ presence. Andrew Gordon, who belongs to the Gordon family, a renowned clan from Scotland, inherited a Gordon Tartan kit as a family heirloom from among the personal belongings of his grandfather. He states, ‘I am the eldest so would assume the kilt would be passed to me automatically, as I also have a son named after my father Ian (Scottish name) and he is next in line for this kilt.’ (Gordon to Boggaram, 2012)

Validation as value Heirlooms go through constant validation checks every time we relocate, every time we clean our house, we check and recheck if the objects around us are still valid for being part of our lives. I suppose that hundreds of times my grandfather would have cleaned his room and disposed of unnecessary objects. The very reason the utensil that Girish inherited survived for a long time was because of the choice made to preserve it and the importance given to it by my grandfather; this gave the object exceptional value. This is the reason why ephemeral objects like receipts, train tickets, slips and more can also acquire emotional significance.

4.6 Conclusion I have talked about my experiences of revisiting my grandfather’s heirloom and the heirlooms of others. My personal reflections on the universal characteristics of heirlooms are that an obj16

jectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s authenticity rests in the emotional presence and not in the object, the ability of objects to embody a personality and how we infer events from the condition of an object in the manner of a detective interpreting clues in order to recollect a memory. The heirlooms also gave me a sense of the choices made by ancestors in their everyday lives: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;How our lives are held together by the strands of meanings that these worn forms conveyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Csikszentmihalyi ,1991).

5 Hyper-connectivity and Digital Identity

5.1 Introduction Increasingly, digital assets and social networks have become part of everyday living. How has the intervention of digital technologies, like social networks and cloud computing, changed the way we acquire memories? What are the characteristics of these possessions?

Digital technologies, social networks and cloud computing have become the centre of our current lifestyle. Artefacts like photographs, books, music, videos and letters have adopted more portable forms while remaining supreme containers of our identity (20 Tech Trends for 2013, 2012).

5.2 Personal digital possessions Personal possessions are digital assets that are well within a userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s control on their hard drive or other storage device.

Missing characteristic of a personal digital possession for it to be an heirloom A key characteristic that is missing from any digital possession is the wear that comes with regular use. The erosion of an object is part of its story and this also communicates the time to which the object belongs. Digital possessions do not lose their lustre. This can be taken as an advantage when handing them down since recipients see the possession in exactly the same condition. Are they losing one of the key qualities of an heirloom, that of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;signifying time,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; or do they still convey a time difference?

By searching through old digital comic posters an understanding of whether they convey the time they were from can be garnered. Figure 8 is the oldest and figure 9 the newest, and both clearly depict the time they belong to. Figure 8 is a two-dimensional outlined vector image with solid colours. Figure 9 is a three-dimensional image with shading and shadows and is close to the realistic rendering of a character. A digital asset loses its lustre through improvements in technology but retains the communicative quality of conveying the time it belongs to.

Fig 8 Tintin season one

Fig 9. The Adventures Of Tintin

Current practices for bequeathing Personal digital assets are largely archived in multiple locations for fear of losing them, as well as on devices like flash drives, CDs and DVDs for passing them on. However, these formats are becoming increasingly obsolete and will be eventually become inaccessible in a retrospective sense.

5.3 Possessions on social networks A new kind of opportunity for recording our lives is provided by social networks. Recording activities on social networks are similar to those of our analogue dairies but have a different order. Dairies were very personal, however our friends equally own social network holdings and so they cannot only see our digital diaries but also add more layers of memory to them by commenting, liking, retweeting or generating a conversation about the location visited. All of these are the valuable possessions of a person that tell us who that person is; they contain his social personality.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;By facilitating constant, real-time conversation, these platforms inevitably create a detailed log of the past. As a habit of sharing and an emerging quantified-self movement merge, the potential to recycle our real-time content growsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Why The Next Social Media Frontier Is The 20

Past, 2013). But when we sign up to create, share and consume these services we are â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;just in

the moment’. We do not think of their value in a retrospective sense. Ten years down the line my college photograph and comments by my classmates may become valuable when I choose to look back. ‘Content gets less valuable over time and then it gets more valuable’ (Why The Next Social Media Frontier Is The Past, 2013).

Ephemeral Possessions A scenario that would lead users to think about their social network holdings as having value would be when users want to delete their accounts for various reasons. For example, on 18 December 2012, Instagram announced a review of their terms and privacy policy. Users were unhappy and a sizeable number opted out of the service (Instagram seeks right to sell access to photos to advertisers, 2012). This may be the situation with many services that we embrace today. I am positive that many people had invested time into building their profile and acquiring memories on Myspace.com, similar to the way we use Facebook today, which took away countless Myspace users. These are just trendy services that we take for granted as lasting for a long period of time. I would expect new and trendier services to come in and take me away from the ones I am using today.

On the eventual results of our relationship with websites, in his article ‘On the Web, forever has a due date’, Ivor Tossel writes: Picture yourself sitting in front of your news-o-scope [...] when up pops word that a website you were really into a decade ago is shutting down. ‘Facebook!’ you exclaim. ‘I remember Facebook! I posted 250,000 pictures to Facebook. My lost youth!’ If it sounds improbable that everything you’ve piled into Facebook might evaporate in just 10 years, then consider: one of the biggest websites of the late 1990s is about to get deleted. At the end of October, Yahoo will pull the plug on GeoCities, the service that more than 1 million people used to set up web pages. (On the Web, forever has a due date, 2012)

As we discuss this, Google wants to stop their Google reader services due to a decline in users.

Fig 10

Jonathan Chapman describes this as a ‘Honeymoon period, the passionate early stages of a subject-object relationship [...]. Honeymoon periods are by their very nature short lived. During recent years, consumers have become serious honeymooners and today subject-object relationships are less marriage, more one-night stand’ (Chapman 2010).

Current methods of archiving In late 2012, for the first time social media platforms and the big players in digital service providers started to think about revisiting the past in their own ways. Facebook has created a Facebook Timeline representation of posts by time, Twitter launched a feature that allows users to download their tweet archives, Google offers Google Takeout, ‘a tool that lets you quickly and easily download data that is created in a number of Google products’ (Google Public Policy Blog, 2013). In the case of Instagram, people opted out by archiving all their possessions through services like instaport.me. I got my hands on these services to understand how they allow users to preserve their content and its authenticity. Figure 11 is my Instagram photograph with an annotation and a like. Figure 12 is the possession I received when I choose to archive it. Archived assets do not contain all the layers of memories. The soul of my possession is lost, namely the metadata, annotations, locations tags are the cues that help us recollect the moment by showing familiarity. If we wanted to infer events from the condition of an object in the manner of detective interpreting 22

clues, to recollect a memory, we could not. Friends tagged and comments might tell us about

the context of my possession, which is lost when we want to archive and opt out of these services.

Fig 11

Fig 12

Another example is when we upload a photograph or a status update to a social network; we are emotionally attached to the content and to other related cues like user interface, comments and friends tagged. Social networks change their user interface over time to fall in line with the trends. While working on this project, on 7 March 2013 Facebook decided to change its interface (Fig. 13) (Facebook Unveils a Radically Redesigned News Feed, 2013). How does the instability of the format influence its ability to preserve an emotional memory?

Fig 13

My possessions in figure 3 on the Facebook Timeline will not look the same when I uploaded them. The related cues of the content will change from the day I preserved the memory to the day myself or my family choose to look back. Here, my past is painted and remodelled by time. If I choose to opt out of Facebook or delete my account for various reasons I cannot preserve my possessions in their authentic form. Like all accurate representations of who we are and what we were, I believe digital possessions also deserve preservation and should be bequeathed in their authentic form.

Google has launched an Inactive Account Manager for all users of its accounts: What should happen to your photos, emails and documents when you stop using your account? You can tell us what to do with your Gmail messages and data from several other Google services if your account becomes inactive for any reason.’ They provide an example: ‘you can choose to have your data deleted or select a trusted contact to receive data from some or all of the services. (Google Public Policy Blog, 2013)

Why would anyone want to hand down all their emails or entire social network content to one family member? Imagine our grandparents leaving their entire belongings to their children. Personally, it would not mean anything to me. They would have had something that the children should not see or know about. What if the users want to be selective about what they hand down? How might a user hand down a possession before dying or opting out of the service, like an heirloom? What if a user wants to share his possessions among his children or grandchildren?

5.4 Possessions of Monetary Value We also own personal possessions like music and eBooks, which are usually purchased and also carry valuable memories that are part of our digital assets. There might be a need to bequeath them to future generations. These are the assets that are under a user’s control; or at least we assume they are.

Current methods for handing down personal digital assets are enabled by legacylocker.com and assetlocker.net, which allow users to upload usernames, passwords and release instructions to assigned beneficiaries after a time delay pre-set by the user: ‘1 on 10 people have already put their passwords in their wills so that relatives can access their digital treasures’ 24

(I bequeath my iTunes credits, 2013). Is handing down a password an ethical or legal way to bequeath a possession?

Restrictions in DRM rights for bequeathing After visiting the ‘Account and terms of use’ for most of today’s predominant services, users accept that they will not share their passwords or let anyone else access their accounts or do anything else that might risk the security of their accounts. We also agree to not transfer our accounts to anyone.

Picking up the Digital Rights Management of iTunes and Kindle – popularly used services where we pay for our digital possessions – helps the development of an understanding of the obligations we accept that affect bequeathing digital possessions to heirs. Amazon Kindle’s terms state: Upon your download of Kindle Content and payment of any applicable fees (including applicable taxes), the Content Provider grants you a non-exclusive right to view, use, and display such Kindle Content an unlimited number of times. Kindle Content is licensed, not sold, to you by the Content Provider. [...] You may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense, or otherwise assign any rights to the Kindle Content or any portion of it to any third party. (Amazon.co.uk Help, 2013)

Furthermore, from the Bruce Willis v Apple case: Joshy Thomas, an intellectual property lawyer, says that most ITunes users probably don’t realise that when they pay for content all they’re actually doing is paying for an assurance they won’t be sued for having that file on their computers. Say I own a horse. I can give you permission to ride it every Tuesday, but it is still my property. It also doesn’t mean your child has permission to ride it every Tuesday after your death. (Bruce Willis v Apple 2012)

These services are providing access, not ownership, and access is non-transferrable.

Policies cannot keep up One of the main reasons behind this project is to question and show failures in existing digital policies for keeping up with the speed of new technologies and their trends.

In July 2012, the Court of Justice of the European Union faced a controversial case regarding the transfer of rights of digital assets between UsedSoft GmbH and Oracle International Corp: By its judgment delivered, the Court explains that the principle of exhaustion of the distribution right applies, where the copyright holder makes available to his customer a copy – tangible or intangible – and at the same time concludes, in return form payment of a fee, a licence agreement granting the customer the right to use that copy for an unlimited period, that right holder sells the copy to the customer and thus exhausts his exclusive distribution right. Such a transaction involves a transfer of the right of ownership of the copy. Therefore, even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the right holder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy. (Curia.europa.eu, 2012)

There are new services like redigi.com, which now allow the resale or transfer of access rights of used digital music and digital books. If a user can resell their digital asset, why not bequeath it?

Current methods of bequeathing iTunes now provides iTunes Plus, a service that allow users to upgrade their ‘licensed to use’ ITunes possessions into owned assets that can be copied and stored as necessary for personal, non-commercial use (iTunes Store, 2012). But no service provides suggestions or terms of use in relation to bequeathing a possession or a service that enables ethical bequeathing even if the legal rights now allow a transfer of digital assets. Without a service that can ethically and legally help users pass on digital assets and preserve digital possessions authentically users can only follow unethical methods, like coping documents onto flash drives to hand down.

5.5 Conclusion Section 5 raises questions concerning the fear of losing digital assets with digital storage devices becoming obsolete and assets stored in them becoming inaccessible. I have raised questions concerning whether users want to be selective of what they hand down. How might a user hand down a possession before dying or opting out of the service? What if a user wants to share their possessions between their children or grandchildren? I have tackled unavailable services for ethically bequeathing a possession even where the law permits.

The next section presents an effort to design experiences, to be selective in preserving, inher26

iting and ethically bequeathing digital possessions in their authentic form.

6 Service Design Response

6.1 Introduction ‘Next in Line’ is a digital safety box and a safe pair of hands for enabling the bequeathing of digital possessions. This web service has been developed around the Bruce Willis persona. He embraces a life of high digital technological competence through personal and social network possessions. He is also rumoured to have been planning to sue Apple, since their DRM rights did not allow the ethical bequeathing of his music assets equally to his three daughters (Bruce Willis v Apple, 2012).

NEXT IN LINE Digital information as Heirlooms

A platform to be selective to preserve, inherit and

How it works

ethically bequeath digital possessions in their authentic form.

Join us

Download our app to carry your possessions with you. *The mobile app is only a viewer and in offline mode.

Getting Started

About

News

Terms

Press

Fig 14 ‘Next in line’ getting started page

Embracing the Blue Ocean Strategy action framework, this service proposes to:

Eliminate • Bequeathing passwords and usernames. • Bulk transfer of digital information.

Raise • Lifespan of selected assets. • Trust. • Emotional durability. • Authenticity by creating the ability of a donor to control the way in which the possession is retrieved.

Reduce • Multiple archiving. • Obsolete formats.

Create • Selection. • Ethical bequeathing. • Obligation. • Personal familiarity.

Next In Line is a website that allows users to preserve digital possessions while adding annotations and obligations to them.2 The service allows the connection of a possessor with a Next In Line account for the inheritance of preserved possessions.3 Users can also accept heirs who view and inherit a user’s preserved possessions.4

+ Preserve

Inherit

View

Recent Activity

Fig 15 ‘Next in line’ home page

User means a person using the service Possessor means a person who holds assets 4 Heir means a successor or an inheritor 2 3

6.2 Preserve

Personal

Social

Public

Fig 16 â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Next in lineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Preserve possessions page

Preserve allows users to be selective and choose digital possessions from their devices, including secure services like iTunes, social networks and content open to the public. Selected content on secured networks like iTunes preserves its authenticity by saving the actual digital asset, album cover, artist, times played, username of the owner and also a screenshot of the iTunes interface. For social networks the service saves selected tweets and comments, usernames, tags, location, annotations and screenshots of the user interface. In instances of preserving an article that is open to the public the service saves the author, link, date, comments, pictures related and a screenshot of the article and other related cues. Users can annotate their possessions while preserving this information. They also can set an obligation of who the asset can be inherited, and are allowed to change when necessary and before heir inherits. The preserved possession cannot be deleted in any case; it can only be inherited. This removes the fear of losing a possession.

Meta Data

Paris

5 Comments

21 Retweets

@brucey willis

Annotation

Add annotation to your possession Obligation

Obligate your possession

Our programme validates ownership and excludes illegal assets

+ Fig 17 ‘Next in line’ annotation and obligation interface

Eligible files for preservation are those originally bought through a secure source or an owned asset. The service validates ownership and excludes illegally transferred files. If the selected content is an external source or a link that needs to be embedded, the programme verifies rights with the source to be preserved. This enables the user to control the way in which the memory is retrieved and to bequeath the actual possession. The metadata will be the soul of the possession that gives the beneficiary facts that can create value and belief, which in return will bring control across space and over time.

6.3 Inherit

Fig 18 ‘Next in line’ Inherit interface 31

Inherit starts when a user connects to the possessor to become an heir. This will allow heirs to view digital possessions that they are allowed to inherit and the heir may move the chosen digital asset into their archive when allowed to by the obligations applied. In the case of a single license holding digital possession, the asset will be deleted from the possessor’s archive and move into the heirs archive. The heir is now the legal custodian of the asset and he can edit the obligation when necessary, but the metadata of the possession will remain.

6.4 View View is a digital safety box or an archive of preserved and inherited digital possessions. The possessions are arranged by date and every possession will be displayed with a set of cues generated by the closest metadata available among the preserved assets, this might include related events, people and places or different formats. This allows beneficiaries to infer events by relating to the cues generated.

Jun ’95

Hints

Fig 19 ‘Next in line’ view interface

The question and fear of ‘what if this is another service that might cease to exist?’ was brought up during user testing. To address this the service also provides a mobile application for users who would like to keep their possessions under their control. The app synchronises all the preserved possessions in a users mobile device and can be accessed in offline mode. This will direct the total control of user possessions to the user himself. The app is only for an already preserved and inherited possession. Users have to access a web service to preserve or inherit a possession, as this is not a decision that needs to be taken on the go. 32

12th Jan 13

Fig 20 â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Next in lineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mobile viewer

6.5 Conclusion Digital information, which is generic, will be filtered to create an aura of personal quality; in return, selected possessions will develop longevity. The trick is not to change any digital possessions. The service does not create anything; it simply takes what people have made and allows them to preserve this in its original form.

The service enables users to preserve, bequeath and inherit. However, the value of the possession still lies in the emotional presence and familiarity of an heir. The service cannot create an emotional presence for a possession or for the heir; it is a platform that generates circumstances for guiding the experience.

7 Evaluation

7.1 Introduction The method used to evaluate the service is a value opportunity analysis that maps the extent to which the productâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aspirational qualities align with peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s idealised lifestyle or fantasy version of themselves (Cagan & Vogel, 2002).

A partially functional prototype and an illustration of key user journeys using fictional scenarios about Mr Bruce Willis and his family has been included in the service to communicate this idea.

User testing of the website and mobile app was conducted with people who formed part of this projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ethnographic research because they already knew the context of the project and matched the persona of embracing a life of high or medium digital technologies competency with personal, monetary and social network possessions. Users where asked to rate their experiences for each value of the service on a scale of one to five, one being the lowest value and five being the highest.

Fig 21 Value opportunity analysis form 36

Fig 22 Value opportunity analysis report

4/8/2013 20:07:05

4/14/2013 20:24: 56

4/16/2013 21:27: 04

4/18/2013 18:58: 40

Selective

3/31/2013 19:19: 07

Timestamp

Responsible

Ethical

Secured

trustworthy

validated

Authentic

Reliable

I would like to have an option to see all preserved contents by my father, even if i am not allowed 3 to have them. A link that allows the user to buy a similar asset on the web might be a better way to possess rather than downloading from ancestors 4 archive.

4 Andrew Gorodn

It wasnt a reliable experience because of the unfamiliarity in the 3 story

4 HuangYingShang

Frenny 5 Dharmecha

4 Girish Boggaram

Name

4 John Villar

Obligate

Please feel free to add any other comments that would help improve the experience Needs further imporvements on the links and authentication, this is only a model format. i also would like to carry my assets every 3 where i go. Reliability was moderate because It had content which i am not related to, but i understand it was just to get the idea across.Otherwise it is a website i would like to 3 subscribe.

7.2 Conclusion Dr Girish R. Boggaram was the first to test the prototype. He raised a key question of how to trust another service on the Internet that might disappear some day with all his emotional assets: ‘I would like to carry and keep my assets under my control.’ This gave rise to the mobile app (section 6.4).

Other user experiences through the service, namely being selective, responsible, ethical, secured, trustworthy, validated and authentic in handling users’ digital possessions, were rated four on average.

However, reliability was rated three because the users could not find reliability in the service when viewing preserved possessions on the prototype. The possessions and cues generated by the prototype were built on an illustrated scenario and the users did not have familiarity and personal connections with those possessions.

This was the aim of the proposed service, the user’s familiarity and emotional presence embodies value here; the service cannot create emotional presence, rather it is a platform that generates circumstances that would guide users towards that experience.

8 Conclusion

8.1 So what? One of the main reasons for this project is questioning existing digital policies and understanding how a designer can circumvent failures in existing policies to keep up with the necessities and behaviours of people by choreographing solutions to problems that might not necessarily exist today, especially through explaining future requirements (Erlhoff & Marshall, 2008).

Considering that I am exploring a question that all mainstream digital service providers are facing and seeing that I am only looking into existing practices for inspiration, the proposed response might be a possible solution that can be put to use, as people can relate with the practices of heirlooms. Legal policies have also worked in favour of the project to become a service solution more than a speculative project.

8.2 Reflection on alternative possibilities The next step for the project would be to work with a web developer to build a working web service that would allow users to preserve and inherit their own possessions. The key factor while user testing the service was that users could not find reliability in the service since it is built around an illustrated scenario that users did not have any familiarity with in terms of the story or the possessions carried. Ghetto testing is a method I would like to use once a working prototype is made in order to test the service before I try to make it available to everyone.

List of figures Figure 1. Bhimbetka rock shelters, 2012. Bhimbetka rock painting showing man riding on horse. [Image online] Available at: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhimbetka> [Accessed 03 May 2012]. Figure 2. Bronze Age, 2013. Late 3rd Millennium BC silver cup from Marvdasht. [Image online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age> [Accessed 01 May 2013]. Figure 3. Documenting the process of unpacking an unexpected gift: author’s image. Figure 4. Betel leaf and areca nut crushing utensil inherited by Dr Girish R. Boggaram: author’s image. Figure 5. Smoking pipe inherited by John Villar: author’s image. Figure 6. A technical pen set inherited by Anton Bob Kraus: Author - Anton Bob Kraus. Figure 7. A technical pen set inherited by Anton Bob Kraus: Author - Anton Bob Kraus. Figure 8. Adventures Of Tintin, 2012. The Adventures Of Tintin season digital poster [Image online] Available at: <http://www.pixmule.com/adventures-of-tintin/18 > [Accessed 14 December 2012]. Figure 9. Tintin, 2012. The Art of The Adventures of Tintin [Image online] Available at: <http:// www.booksellers.co.nz/book-news/new-releases/art-adventures-tintin> [Accessed 13 December 2012]. Figure 10. Google Reader Pop-up message on author’s profile: author’s image. Figure 11. Instagram profile of the author: author’s image. Figure 12. Archived Instagram content using instaport.me: author’s image. Figure 13. New Facebook news feed launch, 2013. Facebook Unveils a Radically Redesigned News Feed. [Image online] Available at: <http://mashable.com/2013/03/07/newfacebook-news-feed> [Accessed 12 March 2013]. Figure 14. Next in line getting started page: author’s Illustration. Figure 15. Next in line home page: author’s Illustration. Figure 16. Next in line Preserve possessions page: author’s Illustration. Figure 17. Next in line annotation and obligation interface: author’s Illustration. Figure 18. Next in line inherit interface: author’s Illustration. 41

Figure 19. Next in line view interface: author’s Illustration. Figure 20. Next in line mobile viewer: author’s Illustration. Figure 21. Google Docs, 2013. Value opportunity analysis form. [Image online] Available at <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1m1gk06dNOSWaxVk98N_0f-ThOnKaEOSdEn7AjxX0A4w/viewform> [Accessed 01 May 2013]. Figure 22. Google Docs, 2013. Value opportunity analysis report. [Image online] Available at<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ajgj2TwjjqIudG9MODZ3UV9UdG5ON1I2Q0NkNFBlanc#gid=0> [Accessed 01 May 2013].

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MA Industrial Design Unit 2 Project Plan

name

Rahul Boggaram date

29/04/2013 title

Digital Information as Heirlooms aim

How can we enable users to be selective to preserve, inherit and ethically bequeath digital possessions in their authentic form? How can we unpack those experiences to offer stimuli and create a meaningful recall in to inherited digital content? research question

How can digital information be ethically passed to future generations that they value? intended audience

The project is designed for the person who would want to be selective of what they preserve and bequeath out of their digital assets. A person who feels responsible to take care of their heirlooms and thinks itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s essential to preserve their best moments and choices to convey to future generations. It is for a person who looks at digital possessions as sculptures or possessions of emotional presence. It is for Bruce Willis, who was rumoured that he wanted to equally hand down his massive library of digital music collection to his three daughters. key areas of investigation

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Case studies of heirlooms and their custodians My Heirloom Differences between My heirloom and an heirloom Values in an Heirloom Digital Identity Personal possessions and obsolete formats. Possessions on social networks and their ephemeral characteristics 8. Monetarily possessions and Restrictions in Digital Rights Management (DRM) to ethically bequeath. 9. Failure in policies to keep up to trends 10. Emotional durability 11. Service design

role of the project in your personal development?

One of the main reasons of this project was to question the existing digital policies and to understand how can a designer can circumvent the failure in existing policies to keep up with the necessities and behaviours of people and by choreographing solutions to problems that might not necessarily exist in main stream today, by explaining future requirements. (ERLHOFF & MARSHALL 2008). Considering that I am exploring a question that all the mainstream digital service providers are facing and seeing that I am only looking into existing practices to draw inspirations, the proposed response might be a possible solution that can be put to use, as people can relate with the practices of heirlooms. And the legal policies have also worked in favour of the project to become a service solution than a speculative project.

rationale

This project started when an unexpected gift came to my door, which I photographed every step on to my social network page while I unpacked it, to understand that it was from my parents who never used Internet before, learnt it just to order a gift for their son abroad. It was truly a memorable moment, a moment I wanted to preserve and convey the emotions I went through to my future generations. What grasped my attention was that the photograph did not attract any comments or likes on my social network page. It did not interest any of my friends. This also pushed me to understand, something that was immensely meaningful to me was not at all of an interest to my friends. Increasingly, Mobile, Social networks, Internet and other digital technologies have become part of everyday living. We are acquiring what we do, where we are, who we are with, what we like etc., in digital form around different services. This data is large rich collection of a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behaviour (traits) and their memories, but like a lot of us, I was surprised to know that most digital assets cannot be handed down or outlived, as our accounts restrict to an username and a password, which is not legal or ethical to share. With the knowledge of witnessing tangible heirlooms, the similar approach to digital life might create longevity to digital possessions, evocate memories, convey stories, create a sense of burden and outlive a person.

objectives and 1. Mapping the project and their related topics to understand the bigger methods picture of my research question.

2. To explore the universal characteristics of an heirloom in different culture and to understand how and what was passed to next generations? Ethnography is an obvious method to interview custodians from different cultures and backgrounds and to know the characteristics of objects that are bequest. 3. Mapping ethnographic data to understand the universal values and qualities of an heirloom. 4. Mapping ethnographic data to develop an ethnographic fictional scenario to understand how we acquire memories in the current world 5. To investigate what memories do we possess today and how do we acquire them? Research & News Journals, Personal reflection and Questionnaires 6. Study existing methods of bequeathing and preserving digital assets. Design Precedence, Market Research and a personal meeting with a lawyer who handles bequeathing assets. 7. Investigate existing DRM rights? Analysing the existing DRM rights of predominant companies that handle users digital information. 8. Paper Prototyping a service design response for Work in progress show to get the audience comments. 9. User testing the design response with the interviewers who where part of ethnography. 10. Design Experimentation. 11. Customer Base, Notions, Trends, Purpose, User Persona to strengthen the design response by understanding the user better. 12. Eliminate, Raise, Reduce and Create of Blue ocean strategy was put in action to develop the values for the service design response. 13. Extensive testing with relevant user who were defined from the user persona. This was mostly the users and their families who were part of ethnographic research. 14. Value Opportunity Analysis, a method used to ask users to rate their experience on the value of the service while using the proposed output. This shows the opportunities where the experiences of a user can be improved.

role of submissions

Project proposal – Project planning document with the proposed steps to achieve the set aim. Design element – Service design response includes a website and a mobile app. Written Element – A structured reasoning and justification of the project includes identifying an opportunity, analysing existing case studies and textual articles, examining the strengths and weakness of existing solutions. Underpinning design response by using relevant research techniques, methods and user testing. Critical Journal – A chronological documentation of research, analysis, experimentation, design proposals and user testing.