I've been independently researching math, for a while in the homeless community. While I am generally safe, situational realities (weather, equipment stress, health and especially how cities can discard possessions) are weighing on me more heavily as I prepare to publish work. I have as much on paper as digitally, and I'm working on getting notebooks photographed.
What is a responsible/automatic way, should I (e.g.) die suddenly, to pass on research work? I'm a bit unusual in the sense that people don't understand why I'm homeless (so…more isolated, I have no peers it would be responsible to use), and it seems dubious a university would take me — an unknown — seriously.
I know, e.g., that gmail can transfer ownership to another entity after an inactivity timer expires, but that could easily go wrong. A lawyer doesn't make sense; I have no estate and the city would get my stuff first.
I'm not concerned about credit as much as passing on the work. Collaboration could work; I just don't know how to escrow / dead-man switch this so someone actually sees it.
Best Answer
You could use a research notes repository such as Figshare or Zenodo. There is the option to make the contents private, but I would just make them publicly visible right away, so that the whole issue of a switch that enables upon death does not arise. These repositories have a date stamp, so your priority is safe (even though you mention you don't care about credit). The license you will want to use is a "creative commons" license which allows others to use your work freely, so the issue of "transfer of ownership" is also resolved.
Search engines (Google Scholar) will index your repository, so others searching for a topic will find your contribution and be able to make use of it.