Inter-generational Digital Locker

I often hear that the pace of change has recently increased considerably and tons of tons of information is being created every minute. I doubt that the pace of change has increased more than the pace of change in the 19th century and regarding information-explosion most of it is likely to be noise. Every generation thinks they are different than all the previous ones and every generation thinks that the next one is lazier or less smart than they are. This has been going on for thousands of years this will continue as long as humans live on this earth. Getting back to the topic of pace of change, I think that knowledge continues to accumulate on each subject until it reaches a tipping point of innovation. At that point, an innovation occurs that goes through its product life cycle and drives the pace of innovation and temporary excitement until it reaches a plateau, followed by decline when eventually it is replaced by another innovation.

It is very likely this is what happened when fire, stone tools, wheel and metal were invented. Internet has not yet caused a change in history of the scale of Gutenberg's printing press. Of course, it is too early to evaluate Internet from a historical point of view. But we know that it was the technology provided by the invention of Gutenberg's press that accelerated Protestant Reformation as well as Industrial Revolution - two epochal changes in world history. Shortly after Martin Luther had posted his thesis on the door of the church, it was printed and distributed across Europe leading to a Protestant Reformation. Prior to this monks used to hand-scribe books and it was very hard for a common man to earn enough in his lifetime to own a book.

The way information is created, stored and disseminated has been changing over the course of human history:

1. Our early ancestors stored information as drawings on the walls of caves
2. Written language was developed and inscriptions were created on stone
3. Wood was used for inscriptions
4. It was easier to inscribe on wood bark than on wood
5. Use of paper or silk, which made it easier to write and create books
7. Invention of printing press to print books on a mass scale
8. Invention of media like record players for storing sound
9. Invention of media like photographic film for storing pictures
10. Use of electronic media that made it much easier to store and disseminate tons and tons of information at a very low cost

If we look at this progression of how information was created, stored and disseminated, we notice the following:

1. The relative cost of creating, disseminating and accessing information has continuously declined
2. The relative cost of storing, disseminating, accessing information has declined, though cost of storing, disseminating and accessing information has increased in absolute terms. For instance stone inscriptions did not need any protection from weather, paper needs to be protected. Similarly, electronic media needs suitable electronic devices and related technology to access the information. The more information you store, the higher is the cost of access.

The result is that information has progressively become more fragile. We will have no trouble reading several centuries old Latin inscriptions in Rome but if we have to read a 20-year old 5-1/4 floppy diskette, we will have trouble finding the hardware, drivers, hardware connection interface to computers and finally the application required to read the data on the floppy diskette.

Therefore, here is a million dollar idea. Build an electronic digital locker for storing digital information like music, family videos, family pictures and other family information and guarantee access to it for 100 years. Anyone who has been involved in disaster recovery and business continuity planning will immediately recognize that this is easier said than done. Storage and accessing formats of digital media change, operating systems change, technology is upgraded and in a very short period of time it becomes quite expensive to access old digital information. Therefore, execution of this concept will be expensive but doable.

The bigger challenge will be convincing people that you can do it. You will now have to take a leaf out of Patek Philipe's book. You are dealing with inter-generational stuff now. You will need to have a 100 year old brand name and perhaps develop a marketing partnership with a 100 year old business to convince people that you can do it. Possibly, you may want to partner with a Swiss bank, who have been in business for several hundred years. Most likely, your clientele will be premium clientele, who are worried about their legacy. Your digital locker will have to have an exclusive web access that will give your premium clients an unmistakable impression that they are now accessing a remarkable legacy of a remarkable private life. You will need to do an arrangement on your clients' will that when they pass away, you will provide their heirs access to their personal digital library along with their instructions. You will do the same for their heirs' heirs. This will be the only way to maintain the continuity of your inter-generational digital locker and your clients' private legacy.