Yesterday, my software Anti-Social was featured on the NPR program “All Things Considered.“ The story was part of the weekly “All Tech Considered” segment that highlights technological trends and innovations. I really enjoyed the story – and I actually heard it on the broadcast, which was quite exciting. Here’s a quote from the story:
Nielsen, the media research firm, calculated that one in every 4 1/2 minutes online is spent on blogs and social networking sites.
So, Fred Stutzman, a software developer, created an application to combat all of this time wasting. It’s called Anti-Social.
The idea came to him after he fell into the Wikipedia trap: “You’re doing some writing, you’re doing some research, and you want to look something up and you find yourself at Wikipedia,” Stutzman says. “And, as it always happens, one page on Wikipedia turns into to two to five to 10, and then you spend an hour learning about things but not necessarily getting work done. So by having a simple barrier to keeping yourself offline, it’s very effective in terms of productivity.”
You can listen to the story, “Stop Me Before I Facebook Again,” here.
In the wake of the story, I’ve received a number of requests for a Windows version of Anti-Social. First of all – yes, a Windows version is coming. It is a little tricky to produce, but one is in development. Second, now that I’ve completed my dissertation, I hope to find the time to push the beta of Anti-Social for Windows soon.
Hey I heard you on my car radio last week! And also congratulations on finishing the dissertation! Woo hoo!