Data shapes our future. By 2020, we will have arrived at 45 zettabytes, a figure equivalent to an incredible 45 trillion trillion gigabytes. If you look at the individual sectors, there seems to be no longer any where the data have not become a currency of their own. From industry to trade and household appliances, everything is data-controlled and networked.
It is therefore not surprising that the start-up companies are jumping up to this trend. With fresh vigour and creative ideas, you bring innovation into our data-driven world. But one topic has become increasingly important in recent years: the digital heritage. In a digital life, there must be regulation for all processes. We care about data security, privacy, data storage – but the legacy of all these efforts has been rather neglected so far.
But times change; a paradigm shift goes through the industries. Digital heritage is no longer an issue of mourning. Founders and start-ups bring efficiency, flexibility and transparency to the new market. Be it through apps that provide orientation in the jungle of the digital heritage or computer forensics and Internet research programs driven by AI. Just as the founders have fundamentally changed most industries in the age of digital innovation, it does the same with the way we leave behind our lives – revolutionizing, digitizing and creating them. The result is unique solutions that make our (after)life easier.
From the big and small innovators
But also the “big ones” such as Facebook and Google are on the subject. On Facebook, relatives can put an end to the account that has unfortunately been shut down or set a memorial stone for the deceased. At Google, an account inactivity manager takes over the system and deletes the account or selected services. The examples can be continued via Twitter, XING and LinkedIn. One thing is clear in all applications – even the large innovators are only scratching the surface.
As an innovation profiler and startup business enabler, I’m itching my fingers, because the problem is ready, but where are the innovative solutions and ideas? However, a great idea process is not necessary, nor are there any tips for friendly founders. The market is growing and developing in an incredible way. Everywhere in the world, there are already the most creative solutions for all conceivable areas of the digital legacy. But everyone is having a hard time communicating the so darkly positioned topic. Start-ups in particular, which do not always stand out through distinctive public relations work, are struggling to achieve the right position. But times are changing and the grey veil disappears from the subject of the digital legacy.
Founders in this field are inspired and need to be courageous in pushing forward the ideas, because one thing is clear – we are all going to become more and more digital and we will all be going sometime. So if we don’t want what we have accumulated over our digital lives to be buried in the sand, all our memories, ideas and treasures, we need solutions. Data is not only our new currency, it has also become an inseparable part of our lives.
The Coference for Digital Life
This article was originally published by me for a conference that I am currently organizing together with Mario C. G. Juhnke, Sabine Landes, Dennis Schmolk and David Sporer. With the increasing digital networking of our society and our entire lives, the management of data, access and entire identities is becoming increasingly important. The digina 2017 offers entrepreneurs, interested parties and founders valuable specialist knowledge, room for ideas and cooperations and a broad network. Well-known speakers from the fields of innovation, digitalisation and business provide inspiration for their own innovative ideas and should introduce the topic. Part of it is my keynote on the topic “Digital life – of data, companies and the future”.
As a foretaste of the conference in Munich, we are organizing a barcamp together with the startup network SUN. The main topics of the digital heritage will be analysed and dealt with here. The end result should be solutions that will help to bring the topic to the general public. Specialist areas include marketing, business model, legal, social and much more.
If you are interested in this topic now, please have a look at digina-conference.com and come along on November 16,2017!
