Where is my data ?

In the digital age, "my data" is increasingly becoming "my self". The diagram on the left (attribution) shows the datasets that have been published in Linked Data format, "a recommended best practice for exposing, sharing, and connecting pieces of data, information, and knowledge on the Semantic Web using URIs and RDF" (Wikipedia). Among others, they include  a lot of media, government and user-generated content but, despite the apparent complexity, they form  arguably a very small percentage of the archives and databases that are NOT exposable, shareable and connectable. 

The Certificate of Life

In my country, you may have to request to your municipality the issuance of a "certificato di esistenza in vita", literally "certificate of existence in life". The form on the right with the phrasing "The undersigned [...] DECLARES TO BE STILL ALIVE" has been downloaded from the website of an Italian municipality.

After I googled "existence in life", getting mostly Buddhist websites, I began to suspect that translating this expression was beyond my linguistic abilities. So I turned to an Italian Consulate and to Wikipedia where I found the translations "Certificate of Life" and "Proof of Life", both correct yet vaguely monthypythonian, and the more familiar to me "Certificate of Existence". Nevertheless, I feel that something was still lost in translation, maybe the sheer nonsense of standing in front of a counter asking somebody to assert in writing that you are not dead.