Online Accounts

How can online accounts be shut down in a respectful way to the deceased, to those who would mourn them?

http://belopotosky.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/robertmontgomery2.jpg

Metadata for History and Academia

Is there a way to donate data from social networks to academic institutions or a shared repository for future historians and anthropologists?

One possible way of going about this:

• Write a bot that periodically downloads the data from social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, et al) to back them up.
• Ensure that backups of personal sites, blogs, et al are kept in two places (one online (Dropbox?), one offline (on a drive at home)) and are made periodically.
  • Remember: You don't have a backup unless you test it.
• Leave a copy of the last (working) backup to the Internet Archive or the academic institution(s) of your choice.