Hi Ross I spotted this the other day, it's a New Zealand-based site; might be worth a look... "An extensive web based memorial system for deceased New Zealanders that preserves precious moments forever. Remember your loved one and archive their photographs, video and audio clips." www.remembering.co.nz. Andy -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Ross Wolinsky Sent: Friday, April 7 2006 08:23 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] Myspace Profiles of the Deceased Hello All- My name is Ross Wolinsky. I'm a freelance writer currently working on an article that deals with grieving in the digital age. It focuses on the ways that new technology is being used (particularly by young people), the consequences of making the grieving process public (on public web pages), and what the phenomenon says about the growing role the internet plays in our lives. I've already talked to Lee Rainie on the subject. He referred me over to Steve Jones, who then advised me to post details about the project here. I'm looking to talk to anyone who might have an interest and/or some unique insights into the meaning of this phenomenon. Below is a portion of a query letter that goes into a bit more detail. If anyone has any interest, feel free to contact me via email at ross.wolinsky (at) gmail dot com. Thanks, Ross Wolinsky ----------------------------- Last weekend in Seattle a man named Kyle Huff left a party he was attending, came back with a shotgun, and opened fire. He killed six people before turning the gun on himself. Of the six people he killed, at least four of them have MySpace profiles. Now, a few days after the murders, their profiles have become digital monuments to the people they were. More comments are being posted by friends on these profiles in death than when they were alive. It's not unique to this incident, either. Teenagers are using MySpace as a way to work through their grief, and it's being done on public web pages. The flipside is that websites are now popping up dedicated to linking to the profiles of the recently deceased. It is a strange phenomenon, and one that's never been dealt with before. It never needed to be. I'm currently conducting research looking deeper into this phenomenon in the hopes of figuring out what exactly this says about the new ways that young people are using technology. I've already been in touch with several friends of the deceased in Seattle, a PR person from Friendster (responses pending from Myspace and Facebook), and a founding Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. I've also been talking to the webmaster at www.mydeathspace.com, an increasingly popular website that collects links to these profiles. The site started as a small livejournal community. He says he's now getting 50,000 hits a day. The article will focus on how online grieving is symptomatic of larger trends in internet usage, and also on the voyeuristic aspects of conducting what was once private on public web pages. _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/