We are a small but dedicated team passionate about changing the way society think about and prepare for death online. We provide a rage of online tools, resources and support mechanisms to help deliver this. We also work and collaborate with a range of creatives, charities, not for profit and ethical organisations in order to achieve this goal.

We have enjoyed some great early success and have built up a wonderful community of users. Early highlights include being awarded a final four finish in The Next Web's Startup Rally (Amsterdam) and working at Google after being accepted into their 'Launchpad' programme (London).

The DeadSocial family

Core team

• James Norris - Founder & CEO
• Slavi Slavchez - Technical & Support
• Joshua Summana - Design

Advisory Board

• Dimitar Stanimiroff (Managing Director Stack Overflow Careers, EMEA)
• Dr Mark Taubert (Velindre NHS Trust)
• Kes Thygesen (Co-Founder of Rolepoint / Startup Digest editor) 
• Sergi Martorell (CEO Telectic, former VC at 3i & TTP Ventures) 
• Andrew Cuthbert (Business development professional, Former CEO Omnisoft Ltd & Founder of Game to Lean) 
• FJ Van Wingerde (User Experience Director, LBi) 

Foreword

Hello my name is James,

I lost my Father at an early age, since becoming an adult I have often compared how the world has changed since his passing largely due to the arrival of the internet. My life is therefore is very different to that of my Father’s.

Five years or so ago whilst working for a digital marketing agency I watched a video by Bob Monkhouse. In it he appears as a ghost and passes down some powerful words of wisdom. The power of the message is amplified tenfold due to the fact the he had died before the video was first shown.

We are all (kind of) celebrities within our social circles on Facebook at Twitter. This initial thinking made me come to the opinion that we should all have access to a platform that allows us to pass down messages of importance like this if we want to. This led to the research and development of DeadSocial. I hope that you enjoy the tools we provide and find any messages you receive of value and comfort. If you would like to get in contact with us please email us directly.

All the best,

James Norris (CEO & Founder, DeadSocial)

What we provide?

The BBC video below focuses on the tool that we launched at South By South West (SXSW) technology conference in 2013. Since then we have expanded the site and the service we provide.

Guides for addressing death in today's world

We provide a range of tools and resources. To view the full list in the resources area. If you would like to read on of our social media guides click on the relevant link below.

Why we provide our service 

DeadSocial's goal is to provide the best tools and support for those of us who want to bring our digital lives to a managed and controlled ending. Over the last ten years death, grief and remembrance has changed forever. We help to inform both the general public and healthcare workers about this change and provide the necessary resources, tools and support during this transitional period. We try to make all of our information simple, clear and jargon free to help make it accessible to as many people as possible no-matter how 'technology savvy' they are.

We believe that by using technology and utilising the internet we can break down the taboo of death and in doing so live better lives.

The tools and services we provide

Below is a snapshot of some of the services we provide and the campaigning we have carried out. These are expanded further within this website and especially on our 'raising awareness' page.

The Legacy Builder - Our free ‘goodbye’ and digital legacy tool

Our free legacy builder tool enables us to say a posthumous "farewell" to our friends and family online and directly to our social media accounts.

In doing so we are able to ensure that our stories are not left untold. Furthermore by using the service we are able to help build and have an active influence in our own ‘digital legacy’ and the way in which we are remembered.

The image above shows how a logged in DeadSocial user's 'Profile Page' appears.

Why say "Goodbye" to your friends and family?

  Lawrence Darani and his story is told in a recent article by the Guardian Newspaper 

We always love to hear stories from our users and those interested in working with us. Feel free to ‘contact us’ if you have something to share or would like a chat.

Resources & Tutorials

We provide a range of up to date resources and tutorials. These are for online services (such as Facebook, Twitter,  Linkedin etc) and for connected devices (such as computers, mobile phones and tablets). 

 View our free tutorials page by clicking here

We hope that you find our resources and tutorials of use no matter what your circumstance, age or health circumstances. None of us know exactly what the future will hold and it is therefore advised by governments, scholars, charities and financial advisors alike that all od us should prepare for death and make suitable plans. DeadSocial enables us to do this online and during the technological revolution that we are all living through. Subjects addressed on DeadSocial that fall outside our areas of expertise are written by third party contributors such as charities and experts who do.

Raising awareness of digital death through creativity and industry events

DeadSocial addresses death, grief and bereavement and all of the horrible things that occur pre and post death. By addressing these areas through various creative mediums and platforms it's negative impact can be reduced and the subject matter dealt with as best we can.

Tim Watt performing at DeadSocial's 'Dying Matters Awareness Week Pop-Up Shop'.

Preparing for death digitially

For many people the concept of preparing for death digitally and leaving farewell messages for their friends and family on social networking sites may appear bizzarre. However the average internet now user spends around 23 hours a week online (YouGov 2013). For many it is therefore logical to say goodbye to social groups such as friends, business contacts etc who are connected to them on specific social networks. The sentimental value of our digital assets (such as digital photos, videos, blog posts etc is increasing).  It is therefore important that suitable directions are left in our will and/or a social media will.

Industry Recognitions & Early Support

Since launching our service we have had a great response from our users, the press and healthcare professionals alike. We are honoured to have a wonderful team and an incredible board of directors on hand supporting us each step of the way.

Our early industry recognitions include:

• Accepted into Google’s ‘Launchpad’ accelerator. This provided us with guidance directly from Google employees when developing certain aspects of the site (UK).
• Final four startup in the international startup awards: The ‘Next Web Startup Rally’, ran with Microsoft BizSpark (Holland)
• Finalist in the ‘Good Funeral Awards’ for the ‘Best Bereavement Website’ (UK).
• Being featured in a range of different industry publications ranging from the British Medical Journal to the Guardian Newpaper

What people think

• Goodbye in a unique way  - Dr Laura Jane
• DeadSocial is a service that sends messages to your loved ones in the event of your death. Planning to sign up soon - David Chen
• Death, smeath. Now you can die and still participate in social media! Just use DeadSocial- Avinash Kaushik
• 'Famous Last Tweets - death in the twitter era - Katie Moffet 
• "I’ve signed up for DeadSocial, and I’ve chosen my first message from the other side" - Hiawatha Bray

*All of the comments above were attained from public Twitter messages about DeadSocial. 

The annual Digital Legacy Conference

We founded the Digital Legacy Conference due to a requirement by society and end of life professionals. The Digital Legacy Conference is now an annual occurrence.

 To find out more about what happened at the Digital Legacy Conference click here

Thank you

We would like to thank the following organisations and individuals for all of the initial support (thus far).

Dying Matters, Natural Death Centre, Death Cafe, Leverton & Sons, Camden Collective, Google Launchpad, Healthbox, The Good Funeral Guide, UK Trade & Investment, UCL Partners, Lawrence Darani, Lucy Darani, Richard Putt, Lori Mackellar, Dr Mark Taubert, Jon Underwood, Joe Meredith, Joe Levenson, Charles Cowling, Tim Watt, Natalie Jackson, Robert Stephenson, Suzette Field, Stephen Coates, Roland Lawrence, Helen Keegan, Dimitar Stanimiroff, Kes Thygesen, Sergi Martorell, Tugba Tirpan, Andrew Cuthbert, FJ Van Wingerde, Ingrid Norris and DeadSocial's core team.