It’s a terrible thing to think about, but back at ‘cuse in my sociology of the Internet class this came up- when someone passes away – what happens to your online accounts? After a tragedy, the news has been displaying photos from facebook and myspace accounts… and I’ve always wondered, how can you make sure your digital accounts and assets will be transferred seamlessly, similar to your physical assets?

Are people going to continue to write on your facebook wall? What if all of your bills are paid online and no one has access to your account information?

Today, my gmail inbox contained the answer with Legacy Locker. Sure, it’s a little depressing (and not free), but it’s the first solution of it’s kind to come across my LCD screen.

This entrepreneurial company with a very practical goal came up with the idea in an unfortunate circumstance, as described on the about page – Jeremy Toeman, one of the company’s founders, found himself in a tough place when his grandmother, an “avid emailer,” passed away, and no one in the family was able to reply to the emails in her inbox. He then realized that if something were to happen to him, he wouldn’t have a way to transfer domains or login information for his accounts. Thus, legacy locker was born.

Basically, enter your information (login name & password) along with instructions and a beneficiary. When something happens, your “verifiers” will be emailed – who basically need to confirm your condition (they have a pretty secure process, in my opinion). After this confirmation, your instructions will be sent out to the people you have selected – along with any notes or videos you have recorded for delivery in an unfortunate circumstance.

Parents on Facebook

Some parents were fairly early adopters of Facebook, but lately, the facebook thing for parents has really taken off.

Maybe it’s because my dad friended me on facebook, my ex’s mom de-friended me on facebook, or maybe it’s that I’ve been hearing the same thing from many of my friends…

But what do you do when Mom or Dad asks to be your friend? The Washington Post says that many college students just choose to ignore these requests and join “No parents on facebook” groups.

While reading this article on “Facebook for Parents” via a New York Times Parenting blog, I came across some interesting information… that Stanford University has even created a free CLASS for parents on the subject.

The creation of BJ Fogg, Director of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford and co-editor of “The Psychology of Facebook”, the free, four-part course was filled within hours of being announced last month. The classes will be hands-on, and the goals are to help parents navigate the site, create their own page, learn about threats and safety and examine ways that Facebook can teach kids life lessons and social skills. (via NYT)

Fogg includes the “5 Step Plan” for parents on facebook:

1. Join Facebook

2. Friend your kids (Alana comment: now, this of course, means that your kids actually accept you as their friend on facebook)

3. Review your kid’s profile pages — “Go to the profile pages for your kids and review the content. At first, you’ll see the “Wall.” But don’t stop there. Click on the tabs for “Info” and “Photos” to see more.”

4. Review who is “friends” with your kids

5.  Select “More About”.

The class teaches not only facebook basics (creating a profile & navigating) but also strategy, and how to “stay ahead” of your kids on facebook.

Everyone should be aware of their online presence... but keep in mind that you DO have full control over who sees what on Facebook (photos, your wall, certain information) so if you’re concerned, pay attention to the security options.

You Know You're Guilty Of It!!!

Admit it.

You’ve googled yourself. And it’s ok, all the cool kids are doing it.

Even though it sounds weird, and maybe even a little bit concieted, it’s a pretty smart thing to do, because you know that poential employers aren’t hesitating to type your name in that search box after looking at your resume.

However, there are a few sites that can help you decipher through the crazy web of information that links to you (Via TImesUnion.com)

First check out 123people.com, a site that was featured on Killer Startups, who said “ype in any name and 123 will pull up contact information—phone numbers, email addresses, images, and any media available, i.e. videos, profiles, tags, and weblinks. If you’ve got videos on Youtube, a LinkedIn profile, a Wiki article, even a Facebook or Google account, 123 People will find it.” You can also search by geographical region — and it’s free.

Spokeo Search Results-- 184 friends on Pandora!?!

The site found all the pictures of me via images.google.com, links that mentioned me, documents on the web that featured my name, a tag cloud of relevant words, links to all social networking pages, and even links to pages that are considered “biographical” in nature. humm.

Second, check out Spokeo, a site that searches through social networking sites– including facebook, flikr, myspace, webshots, youtube, amazon, livejournal, picasa, imeem, linkedin – the whole lot. According to Wikipedia, Spokeo was founded in 2006 by Stanford grads. It’s kindof free, but kindof not free (subscription method).

To use Spokeo, all you need is an email address and it automatically searches for information on your gmail (or hotmail, etc) contacts.

If you don’t like what you see on these sites, simply note what you found and from what site — and login to that site and change your security preferences. Better now than later, trust me :)