That’s right, you can use the funeral webcast as a way to actively exclude those you don’t like from the ceremony! You can also set a password, which is great for keeping out funereal voyeurs (if those exist?), but also, you know, that cousin with the lazy eye that owes everybody money. It also suggests that you watch the funeral from the library, which is just come on already. If you’re trying to sell me on live funeral webcasting, Chris Hill, at least do it with a little dignity and tact. [Funeral Resources via Consumerist]
Tom Rocha
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 2:02 AMEvery family is different and in some cases there are family issues that are present that makes the family request that certain people not attend the funeral. That is done in the real sense at the venue or in the virtual sense online. This is just an extention of what already occurs. I have seen recent articles with words such as, morbid, horrifying and the like in articles related to funeral webcasting. In many cases families are celebrating the life of a loved one ant the ceremonies themselves are anything but somber dark affairs. But even in those cases where a “traditional” funeral, wake or internment is occuring there are people that just can’t be there. This technology provides them a measure of participation and closure that is otherwise and previously not available. Consider also the virtual social community that increasing numbers of people are a part of through portals like Facebook: how are those connections going to participate if not via the same medium that they connected to the decedent? I have been involved in thousands of broadcasts and the response from those that have been allowed the opportunity to attend via the web are overwhelmingly positive. The only real issues are the webcast companies that forget who they are serving and commercialize everything with indiscreet branding, banner adds, and additional revenue generators for themselves like plugs for flower companies. Funeral webcasting is here to stay and is in fact a global trend. It will be up to the industries involved to make sure that they are putting the people in front of the technology and not the other way around.