What comes after death… digital?

On 2 November 2022, on the occasion of All Souls' Day, Zephorum went online, the first platform in the world to deal entirely with digital burial and commemoration of the deceased also on the web. An innovative project concerning a subject that is so dear to us in real life, but still unknown in digital life. The novelty within the novelty is the fact that the idea was not launched by a Californian big tech, but by a Sardinian startup, managed by Giulia Salis Nioi, an under 36 CEO who has studied and worked around the world, to then choose to return to live (and invest) in Sardinia.

D: Giulia, let's start from the beginning: how did the idea of a webetery, a digital cemetery come about?

R: She was born three years ago, during a sleepless summer night (I had just become a mother). I was re-reading an old post of mine from my Facebook profile, and among friends' comments, I found that of a person who had passed away in the meantime. A strange feeling of annoyance seized me immediately, almost a shiver: it seemed to me that I was face to face with a ghost. Until that moment I had thought that I had said goodbye to that person, that I had said goodbye to him forever. Instead, I realized that she couldn't rest in peace until parts of her, of what she was, that she published about herself, remained dispersed online. Immediately afterwards I imagined how difficult it could be for his closest relatives having to deal with this problem and with their own suffering every day. That's why I said to myself: something must be done.

Q: So you've started activating yourself. And what did you find out? What's the situation?

A: I have found that the situation is very complex, and that this problem will continue to grow, until there are more profiles of deceased people than of living people online, which will happen, according to the University of Oxford, by the next decades.

Q: You said “something has to be done”. What can be done?

Italian law says that our online profiles, as well as what we publish from those profiles, are part of our emotional heritage, and therefore they are inherited by our heirs. So this means that effectively everything we publish, write, post belongs to us, and that we can exercise a will, and the heirs a right. But this is not so simple to achieve, because digital inheritance policies, despite the law, vary for single provider (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google, etc), and often the heir is alone, in a moment of great suffering, having to fight against windmills. Applying to a legal service individually can become very expensive, and does not solve the problem of commemoration, namely: once the digital inheritance is obtained, how will it be used? For a private memory, or public? Because in the second case, the cost of making a mini-site dedicated to that person is also added.

Q: So what's the solution?

A: The solution has always been at hand. Humanity since its origins has recognized the commemoration of the dead as important. And therefore, since ancient times, rituals, cults and methods of greeting and remembrance have developed. This is on a cultural, emotional and legal level. We've only been on the internet for 30 years, but in the last 10, and especially during the pandemic, there has been a strong acceleration of our online presence. People still die, but while you have bodies and memories in real life, you still don't in digital life. Yet, the need is the same. And here's the solution: treat users not as data and accounts, but as people. Restore dignity, protection and peace.

Q: This is where Zephorum comes in. What does your platform do?

A: Zephorum is the first platform in the world to offer comprehensive digital funeral services, creating a parallel ecosystem to the one existing in real life. Our two main products are called Urn (Rest in Privacy) and Tomb (Rest in Public). Both can be purchased either after the death of a loved one or as a form of expressing one's will for the future. The purchase takes place in a simple way, as in a normal ecommerce. With the grave and the urn, our operators will be close to the family, helping them in the process of obtaining the digital legacy from all the selected accounts. Once obtained, the digital legacy is brought together in a single space: in the case of the urn, it is returned to the heirs, who will commemorate their loved one privately, opening their photos, videos and texts whenever they want. In the case of the grave, the digital legacy will be buried within our webetery, but the heirs will be able to share photos, videos and texts of the deceased, managing them as they take care of the real grave in the cemetery. It is a system that guarantees the right to digital inheritance while satisfying the need to remember at the same time.

Finally, with the ex novo tomb, a variant of the tomb, we offer the possibility of commemorating a deceased person, perhaps a person who died many years ago, of whom only old photographs, videos, letters or works are available. By putting them online, the memory is revived.

Q: But Zephorum is an ecosystem of services. What is meant?

A: It means that, as with the royal funeral homes, our platform not only deals with the burial, but also with the announcing and memorial aspect. We offer the possibility of publishing obituaries, funeral announcements and memorial notices, which have an automatic publication, remain online always, and have a very low price. If they concern a deceased whose grave is present in the webetery, they will be linked to this one. So from the tomb you will be able to read all the messages of closeness and affection.

The family members of a person present in the webetery can also receive private telegrams, these too sent automatically after the purchase. It is also possible to video commemorate a loved one directly within the platform, which guarantees safety and protection.

You have to imagine being able to do all the things you usually do, whether for a loved one or an acquaintance, directly online, from a single place, and at an ethical price.

Q: An added value is the fact that Zephorum is a Sardinian company. Why this choice?

A: We are an almost unique case: very few innovative startups are born in Sardinia, and even fewer are those managed by women and young people under 36. There are few innovative companies in this sector even in Italy. But this is a field that really concerns us all, and that has great growth potential. We need to work on it, make people aware of the issue and make them understand its importance. I do it every day as a founding partner and managing director of the company. Of course, I have a team of people with me, each expert in their field, who do a great job. I'm referring to my partner David Harris, American but Sardinian by action, who has thirty years of experience as an administrator and company manager, also in the IT field. He is joined by the lawyer Giovanni Battista Gallus, an IT lawyer expert in the processing of personal data and a member of the Privacy Commission of the National Forensic Council, and Diego Ioppolo, a young and talented digital artist from Como who was able to give shape to the idea, with the graphics and site style. In the front row there are many players, including the BeCreatives company, made up of very young people under 30 who have developed the site and who also coordinate the campaigns on social networks and on Google. We are many people, and we will continue to grow, and to make Sardinia grow. Indeed, I am addressing here not only those who wish to use our services, but also those who think they can add value to the company with their own contribution: enter our site and contact us with your application.

Q: Do we remember the website address and how it works?

A: Sure! Just type Zephorum.com , or go to our Facebook and Instagram channels. The site is very simple to navigate and use: purchases work as for a normal ecommerce, and all the services are interactive, as happens in social networks. I also want to remind you that Zephorum, the first webetery in the world, will soon be available in a multilingual version and for the entire European market.