Reciprocity, Deep Storage and Letting go: opportunities for designing interactions with inherited digital materials

As we continue to accumulate rich archives of digital possessions reflective of our lives and our loved ones, the interaction design community must begin to ask what will become of these collections in the future. This brings up issues regarding the forms in which sentimental digital possessions could be made more present in our everyday lives, the design choices that might lead to their acquiring new value over time, and how file formats and data structures will be preserved to support enduring legacies. We highlighted a few of what will be many emerging opportunities for interaction designers to develop new ways in which digital materials signifying our most meaningful social relationships might persist, evolve— and perhaps fade away—alongside us, now and into the future.