Welcome to the sixth edition of The Art of Memorialising, a monthly newsletter by Peter Billingham from Death Goes Digital and Memorable Words Eulogy Writing services.
The Art of Memorialising is news about digital immortality, digital legacy, digital life curation and all things #Deathtech.
You can now listen to the newsletter as well as read it!
My aim is to keep you informed with this fast changing marketplace, learn developing trends and spot potential opportunities to develop your end-of-life or funeral business.
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WHITEBALLOON is sponsoring this month’s edition.
Whiteballoon is a quiet space to gather your thoughts and make informed decisions about how best to honour and celebrate the life of a loved one.
What Will You Find Here This Month?
We have Startup Spotlights on Vocapsule and Re-cordis
Our ‘Memorialisation Morsels’ highlight -
A UK web portal to plan your funeral and end-of-life wishes as well as tell your life story to be remembered forever.
A safe space for people to create, share and preserve life stories.
Mark Zuckerberg is betting on bringing The Metaverse to life - what about death?
A UK based Guardian Angel breaking down the taboo attached to dying.
How storing your digital legacy in a My Life Jar - may be just right for you.
THANK YOU for being here. Let’s discover the future together through - The Art of Memorialising.
Peter
Photo by Aston Graham on Unsplash
Would you want to remember the sound of a loved one’s voice forever?
How do you feel about recording your voice, saving it for eternity?
What if a voice could be cloned to speak special messages to you after the person had died?
Remembering your loved one’s voice is a beautiful way to keep them with you forever. It’s amazing what it can do to your memory of them.
Often people say to me, ‘I can’t remember the sound of my father’s or mother’s voice.’ What about if you could listen to their voice again and again for all the years to come?
Artificial intelligence is giving you the opportunity to record, clone, store a voice so it can speak to you, to tell your children a story or retell the story of their life. Curating your life online and creating digital immortality for the sound of your voice.
What do you think? Fascinating or uncomfortable? I’d love to hear from you.
Startup Spotlights
Startup Spotlights on Vocapsule and Re-cordis
Vocapsule is a ‘Voice Management Service.’ I came across the company about a year ago, and chatted with one of their founders fascinated at the vision to help preserve voices for digital legacy, but also for those suffering with degenerative diseases where voices would be lost in time, as in patients with ALS or Motor Neurone Disease.
Vocapsule records audio data & stores the files in a private database to activate in the future by you or a trusted recipient. When an account is activated, they train a voice-clone using AI technology from the best labs in the world. Your first thought could be, what about privacy? Vocapsule claims they use secure, audited companies with ethical standards to ensure data is secure.
With Vocapsule you can:
Record a script and upload the audio to their team, who creates a test clone.
Request cloned phrases for the future. For example, say Happy Birthday every year with a custom message.
Use Vocapsule’s premium-quality clones to deliver dynamic content with emotional range. Generating custom messages, audiobooks, and many amazing content sounding in a genuine voice.
Look at the site, videos and clone demo. They are even moving towards cloning in Spanish and French, even if you don’t speak the language! Vocapsule are preparing to launch a subscription model globally that allows you to record and archive a voice indefinitely. For more info, visit Vocapsule.
Re-cordis - Placing The Exact Location Where a Loved One Died
The Re-cordis App, is a free application available for Android and IOS allowing registered users to place on a map the exact location where a loved one died.
We often see roadside memorials. This initiative stems from those tributes where a loved one died in accident. Now, with Re-cordis families have a way to mark the place of memorial. Even allowing for virtual offerings for people not able to visit the exact location.
The app allows uploading information about the person, and geolocating the place where they died. You can add images, biography and even voice audio.
Other Startups in The News -
Forever Mortal - Turning the memories of a lost loved one into a life of celebration using technology in ways never seen before, launching soon.
Last month we highlighted - HereAfter - The app that creates a Life Story Avatar launched this week.
Sponsored Product - Whiteballoon
Whiteballoon is a portal giving access to comprehensive information. Its resources cover every aspect of end of life, compiling this into an easy-to-use platform that gently guides people through the process of loss.
Whiteballoon also highlights the latest thinking, products and services. Innovations such as eco-friendly funerals or new ways to memorialise a loved one. Through Whiteballoon, people can connect to artisans and professional organisations, helping them to create the perfect farewell.
Is free-to-use. It includes information on what to do when someone dies, planning a funeral, and finding bereavement support.
Offers useful Planning Tools. Including a personal ideas folder to gather information. Print this out or share digitally with family or a funeral director.
Allows users to find and connect quickly and easily with the individuals, artisans and professional organisations they need.
Whiteballoon is creating a community of compassionate, forward-thinking people and businesses that are committed to excellence in their field.
Want To Promote Your Product or Service?
Interested in telling the audience of The Art of Memorialising about what you do? Get In Touch Here.
MM’s (Memorialisation Morsels)
5 meaty bites of news for YOU to stay ahead of the conversation on Digital Legacy, Digital Life Curation & #Deathtech developments.
DEATHio - Getting Digital Death In Order
Death.io is a modern approach to thinking about the end of our lives. Planning for death may be morbid, but it is important - nobody gets away with not dying eventually, however the digital life can remain immortal.
Internal is the safe platform for recording and sharing your memories and special stories. Whether writing, filming, or recording; they display all your chosen moments on your personal Internal timeline.
Born as a response to the pandemic and the need to memorialise and share stories, Iternal offers you the chance to connect with and remember your loved ones through cherished memories. Every life has been extraordinary - here’s how to record it.
Lalo - A safe space for people to create, share and preserve life stories.
When a loved one passes away, it's difficult to remember them. Lalo is an online memorial platform that provides a simple, safe way to create a meaningful farewell by tapping into the emotional aspects of death – memories, photos, stories, even recipes – things that can get lost when a death happens.
After his father’s death, Juan Medina wondered if he knew his father as much as he could have. Researching his family’s past using genealogy and DNA research sites like Ancestry and 23andMe, he recorded conversations and collected photos. After a positive response, he wondered how he could take the idea and scale it. The result is Lalo.
You can hear Juan Medina talk about Lalo on The New Mainstream podcast.
The Metaverse and Digital Legacy (Via The Next Web)
You may notice in recent weeks the transitions and changes at Facebook and its plans to change the name to Meta.
In this keynote speech, Mark Zuckerberg explains how technology is changing and how, in the coming ‘metaverse’ we will live and socialise, learn, collaborate and play in ways that go beyond what we can imagine today. Living in the metaverse is just beginning. But what about dying in it?
In this article by Stefanie Schillmöller and Charlotte Wiede, (Via The Next Web) they suggest we need to plan for immortality in the coming metaverse. Insightful article. ‘So the real question isn’t whether we’ll live on in the digital realm after our deaths, but how…’
Guardian Angel - We’re here for your next step, whatever that may be.
The founder of Guardian Angel lost his mother tragically in a car accident. Finding the process difficult, he sought a new and simple way for others to follow.
It was with this in mind; he launched Guardian Angel. Guardian Angel is a secure and private online service specially designed to help families through the times following a death. Guardian Angel offers - end-of-life planning, life assurance, will writing, and bereavement support.
Guardian Angel believes it can make a positive and long-lasting contribution to society by helping to break down the taboo attached to dying.
My Life Jars - A Quick and Easy Way To Organise Your Life and Capture Memories
My LifeJars is the highly secure, online & mobile-responsive platform designed to organise and store your personal information, available at anytime, anywhere. The depth and breadth of this site sets it apart in the marketplace.
After a near-death experience, the CEO and founder of LifeJars, Suke Ridler, realised she would have left everything in a mess. It’s a common problem when someone dies. Family members can’t find information relevant to the person after their death.
Templates and prompts guide you through organising and storing your important documents, passwords, and writing a life journal.
People can choose to join your tribe and share the content that is directly related to what you specify. You can even plan Online Memorials for loved ones, Online Tributes and even Online Funeral Services.
Other News and Articles
Thanks for reading!
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Until next month, keep safe, and keep going.
Pete
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