Data plans
Photos by Kimberly Coffin and Patrick Campbell
When Josie Mahoney鈥檚 best friend died in high school, his parents asked for her help with听
heir son鈥檚 social media.
Of course, she said yes, but she didn鈥檛 know where to start. Should they delete his account, losing access to the photos he posted and was tagged in? Or archive it as a digital memorial?
鈥淚t was distressing,鈥 said Mahoney (InfoSci鈥25). 鈥淚 think a clinic would鈥檝e been really great because at least there鈥檚 someone to talk to who knows what they鈥檙e doing.鈥
Now she鈥檚 one of those people: In her senior year, she joined CMDI鈥檚 Digital Legacy Clinic, led by Jed Brubaker, an associate professor of information science.
鈥淭he clinic is something you can鈥檛 bottle鈥攖here鈥檚 an energy there,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the coolest class I鈥檝e been a part of because of how it prepares us for the real world.鈥
Part of that is how the course is structured. Brubaker builds in collaborative, project-based assignments that mimic the workplaces Mahoney and her classmates will graduate into. But it also comes from the market need for a solution to what happens to our data when we die.
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As an academic research collaborator at Facebook, Brubaker helped develop the platform鈥檚 memorial account practices, but saw a much larger problem than just social media鈥攑hotos, videos, text messages, bank accounts and so on. Through a National Science Foundation CAREER Grant, he created a pro-bono, law school-style clinic to help people maintain their digital legacies.
鈥淚t felt like a really unique moment where my research, teaching missions and a desire to do public service perfectly overlapped,鈥 he said.
鈥楶re-mortem鈥 support
Many clients come to the Digital Legacy Clinic in search听of what students call 鈥減re-mortem鈥 support鈥攇etting a handle on what to do with their data now, so their families don鈥檛 have as much stress later.
听听I appreciated the students鈥 compassion and that they鈥檙e thinking about ways to mitigate the overwhelm.鈥
Corinna Robbins
That was the case with Corinna Robbins.
鈥淚 wonder what will happen to all the digital detritus that feels meaningful to us, and I wonder how my family will handle mine, or how I should handle my parents鈥,鈥 Robbins said. 鈥淢y son is 16 right now. He may not be interested in my inner life at this moment, but I bet one听
day he will be.鈥
Unlike her mother, who had a drawer or two full of family photos, Robbins said she had thousands of unorganized photos on about 25 hard drives. That alone felt daunting, but equally disappointing was losing a blog she kept as a young adult, filled with personal essays and photography.
With help from the students, she learned about different cloud solutions to organize her photo collection, as well听as the Wayback Machine, an online archive where she听was able to recover most of her blog.
鈥淚t was lovely to be reconnected with those artifacts of my younger, former self,鈥 Robbins said. 鈥淚 appreciated the students鈥 compassion and that they鈥檙e thinking about ways to mitigate the overwhelm.鈥
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Students in the Digital Legacy Clinic provide client support while researching how different platforms treat user data after death.听
鈥楢 measly number鈥
Part of the clinic鈥檚 effort is dedicated to fieldwork, in which students review platforms鈥 policies for specifics on user accounts and data after death. They鈥檝e found that only 13% of platforms offer functional support, 鈥渁 measly number for something that will happen to 100% of us,鈥 Brubaker said.
The rest of their time is spent on client cases and building out the clinic鈥檚 functionality. Jack Manning (CTD鈥24), an information science master鈥檚 student, built a chatbot to push students鈥 boundaries, ensuring they encounter a range of situations and build their confidence for working with clients who may be grieving.
鈥淭hese are undergraduate students, not mental health professionals,鈥 he said. 鈥淎nd there鈥檚 potential for harm in those sensitive communications.鈥
Manning, like Mahoney, joined the clinic in the fall and repeated the class last spring. While the first semester was spent developing the framework and assessing clients鈥 needs, the second focused on creating a knowledge base and onboarding system鈥攍ike the chatbot鈥攖o benefit future students.
As part of her portfolio project last fall, Mahoney focused on leadership and outreach鈥攕o on top of helping听clients, she also developed a mini knowledge base听with resources to train future students to be sensitive听in working with the public.
鈥淣ow I can say I was a team leader, a project manager and in charge of the timeline and what we were听doing,鈥 she said.
Students said that real-world emphasis shows up in听other ways, too.
鈥淚鈥檝e learned how to work with people on different teams and bounce ideas off each other,鈥 said Oliver Kochenderfer (InfoSci鈥25). 鈥淚鈥檝e gotten so much teamwork experience, and it鈥檚 been cool to have a teacher who acts as a manager guiding us toward one big goal.鈥
Brubaker said it鈥檚 important to remember that although听college is a time of exploration and experience, one听of its main responsibilities is preparing students for life听after graduation.
鈥淚 hope the clinic remains a place that has a public impact while also being a place for both my students and me to learn,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 love taking humanistic or social science issues and thinking about how to implement that in the code. We鈥檙e human-touch first. More than a solution, people need to be heard.鈥
Learn more about the clinic
Hannah Stewart graduated from CMDI in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news for the college.
Photographer Kimberly Coffin graduated from CMDI in 2018 with degrees in media production and strategic communication.