[iDC] Technologies of Friendship (and Freedom)

[Fred Stutzman]

Hello fellow IDC subscribers -

Trebor has asked me to talk about two projects I've been working on.  The 
first is a course I am teaching this fall at the University of North 
Carolina's School of Information and Library Science.  The course is 
"Technologies of Friendship."  This course draws on a number of disciplines 
to explore the role of technologies in mediating personal relationships. 
We're having a great time in the class, so if you'd like to check out the 
syllabus or follow along, you can do so at 
http://ibiblio.org/fred/inls_490.

My second project is actually a productivity tweak.  The back-story goes as 
follows.  Due to lack of an office, I tend to frequent coffee shops for 
writing.  I particularly like coffee shops that DON'T have wireless, as I 
found my writing productivity increases due to lack of distraction.  To 
replicate this, I created a Mac application named "Freedom", a little piece 
of software that disables Internet access for a specific time interval. 
Freedom's tweak is that it can't be disabled - unless you want to reboot 
your computer - so it seems to actually work for the purpose intended.  To 
find out more about Freedom, check out: 
http://www.ibiblio.org/fred/freedom/

Enjoy,
Fred

-- 
Fred Stutzman
Ph.D. Student and Teaching Fellow
School of Information and Library Science, UNC-Chapel Hill
fred at metalab.unc.edu | (919) 260-8508 | http://fstutzman.com/