org-mailing-list.org: Add "What to do if you don't receive an answer"

[worg.git] / org-people.org

#+TITLE:     Org-mode Community People
#+EMAIL:     carsten.dominik@gmail.com
#+AUTHOR:    Worg people
#+LANGUAGE:  en
#+STARTUP:   overview
#+OPTIONS:   H:3 num:nil toc:t \n:nil ::t |:t ^:{} -:t f:t *:t tex:t d:(HIDE) tags:not-in-toc ':t
#+INFOJS_OPT: view:info toc:1 path:https://orgmode.org/org-info.js tdepth:1 ftoc:t buttons:0 mouse:underline

# Ian Barton ------------------------------------------------------------------

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Ian Barton
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/BartonIan.jpg]]

I started out in a farming family before going into medical research
as a virologist and then into computing. I have now returned to
farming, where I hope I'll stay!

I have only been using Emacs for two or three years and had been
looking for something that allowed me to keep all my information in
plain text. When I discovered org I knew that I had found the Holy
Grail.

Org develops so rapidly that every time I wonder if I can do "x" in
org, it's either already implemented, or one of Carsten's multiple
beings creates it overnight. However, despite rapid development and
many features org's core functions remain simple to use.

Outside farming and playing with computers I try to indulge my passion
for mountaineering, which I am trying to pass on to my three young
children, who are sometimes reluctant companions in our adventures!

# Charles Cave ----------------------------------------------------------------

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Charles Cave
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/CaveCharles.jpg]]

I started using Emacs on Unix workstations in the early 1990s but now
I use Windows desktop machines.

I was using XEmacs for my Perl programming work in my role of a
software tester for a Sydney based software company.  Around 2007 I
discovered David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology through web
sites such as [[http://www.43folders.com]] and
[[http://www.diyplanner.com/]]. I later created a portal of GTD resources
[[http://gtdportal.pbworks.com/]]

I stumbled upon the Planner mode for emacs, then did more research on
Emacs outliners and found org-mode. What attracted me to org-mode was
keeping all information in one file and the outlining commands were so
simple. The format of an org-mode was very logical and easy to
generate and parse using scripts in Perl or Python.

XEmacs soon gave way to GNU Emacs which is friendlier to org-mode and
in my opinion, a better Emacs.  My other useful Emacs package is
mup-mode for typesetting music using the [[http://www.arkkra.com][MUP program]]. I also use
org-mode to publish articles for the web about GTD, org-mode and my
music making.

org-mode and Remember mode are another great combination of tools.
I capture my thoughts, ideas, notes, journal entries, and Internet
banking receipts into plain text files.

I want to tell the world about org-mode so I write articles on how I
have used org-mode in my daily life. I work as a technical writer of
training materials, and I naturally enjoy writing to help people
understand how to use technology. My articles can be found at
[[http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/GTD/]]
I couldn't live without org-mode! Each new release
has exciting new features.

# Dan Davison -----------------------------------------------------------------

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Dan Davison
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/DavisonDan.jpg]]

I'm a university-based researcher in evolutionary biology/genetics. In
addition to using org-mode for all my task and project management, I
now use it as my working environment for programming and data
analysis, which I can highly recommend.

Although I'd used emacs for a few years beforehand, encountering
org-mode finally motivated me to learn emacs-lisp, which I have really
appreciated (I had previously found it strangely refractory). The
community of org users is providing a constant stream of high quality
new additions, and when you have any doubts about how to proceed
yourself, it is a spectacularly helpful and reliable source of
knowledge.

I helped Eric Schulte to produce the [[https://orgmode.org/manual/Working-with-source-code.html#Working-with-source-code][new source code functionality]] of
org-mode (originally called org-babel). I have [[http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~davison/software/dbm/dbm.php][one other software
project]] outside my work; its aim is to use the large amounts of
information about musical similarity available online to organise and
navigate a personal music library.

# Carsten Dominik -------------------------------------------------------------

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Carsten Dominik
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/DominikCarsten.jpg]]

I am the main Org-mode author, being on this project since 2003.

Just like my earlier Emacs hacks [[http://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/reftex.html][RefTeX]], [[http://staff.science.uva.nl/~dominik/Tools/cdlatex/][CDLaTeX]], and [[http://idlwave.org][IDLWave]], writing
[[https://orgmode.org][Org-mode]] resulted from a direct need for it: I wanted to get organized
and wanted to do it in Emacs.  There was nothing available that fit my
wishes, in particular no combination of outline-based note-taking with
task management in a single system.

With lots of help from the community around Org-mode, this project has
grown into a versatile toolbox, which is being used by a large number
of people, in various ways and to various ends.

Org-mode was largely written on the commuter train to Amsterdam, where
I [[http://staff.science.uva.nl/~dominik/][work]] as an [[http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html][Astronomer]] at the [[http://www.astro.uva.nl][Astronomical Institute]] of the
[[http://www.uva.nl][University of Amsterdam]].

# Thomas S Dye ----------------------------------------------------------------

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Thomas S Dye
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/DyeThomas.jpg]]

I am an archaeologist (http://www.tsdye.com/) who switched to Linux
almost 20 years ago when the demise of DOS made most of my little
Turbo Pascal utilities obsolete.  My unhappiness with proprietary
standards led me to discover the Free Software Foundation and, of
course, emacs, which has been central to my computing life ever since.

With no formal computer science training, I typically stumble across
cool emacs features by accident rather than design.  Sometimes these
features change the way I conceptualize a problem and the space of
possible solutions.  A short list, roughly in the order I discovered
them, includes regular expression search and replace; emacs as an
interface for other applications, like python and R; reftex (written
by Carsten), whose manual suggests generating an index by creating a
list of unique words over a certain size found in a document, then
letting reftex guide the markup process, one unique word at a time
(!); and, most recently, org-babel, which seems equal parts simplicity
and magic.

I'm currently producing reproducible research documents with
org-mode. I use org-mode to organize the research (thanks to Bernt
Hansen's terrific how-to), keep a laboratory notebook, build a source
code library, create web pages, and author the published document.

# Eric S. Fraga ---------------------------------------------------------------

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Eric S. Fraga
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[[./images/org-people/FragaEric.jpg]]

I am a computer scientist working with chemical engineers, doing
research in optimisation and automated design methods.  Org-mode is a
key tool in the management of both my research programme and my
teaching activities.

Being based on simple text files and being open source, Org-mode is
attractive for being future-proof.  It allows me to no longer worry
about whether I'm locked in to some software vendor's changing view of
what is important or necessary and I know that all the information I
have put into my org files is and always will be accessible.

Org-mode provides me with an excellent framework for collaborative
work.  As it is available on a very wide range of devices, including
hand-held computers, the full power of the system is at hand no matter
where I am working.

My [[http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucecesf/][web pages]], describing my research activities and interests, are all
written in Org.  Lately, I have been experimenting with literate
programming using Org with the recently added org-babel framework!

My contribution to the Org-mode project is mostly as an enthusiastic
user!

# Peter Frings

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Peter Frings
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/FringsPeter.jpg]]

I'm part of a software team in Mortsel, Belgium, as a requirement
analyst, conceptual designer, interaction designer, graphic designer
and spec writer ---or whatever the titles are---; i.e., the whole
shebang except programming. I do miss programming a bit, which I did
professionally during the first 10 years of my career. That itch
sparked my current interest in functional programming, but I lack the
time to do anything serious with it.

Although I'm not an artist, I like photography ('grepe' on Flickr),
and I play the double bass in a couple of folk bands.

Being an avid emacs user, I stumbled upon Org-mode and never looked
back. I use it mainly to start writing ideas and concepts, to-do list
and scheduler and to track the time I spend on the various tasks. I'm
pretty sure I'm only using 5% of what it can do, especially given the
furious pace of development in the last year. Nothing compares to the
Org community, with Carsten et all on top (how can people fix a bug
faster than you can read the problem report?).

I <3 Org-mode. Spread the word!

# Bastien Guerry --------------------------------------------------------------

#+html: <br style="clear:both;" />
Bastien Guerry

Over the past decade, I have been studying philosophy, cognitive
sciences and educational theories.  I'm interested on how to use
computers for education, and I'm a consultant in this field.

I'm not a programmer but I've been raised in Emacs, so I can read
some elisp code, fix some bugs and sometimes write a function.

My first Emacs contribution was [[http://directory.fsf.org/project/BHL/][BHL]], a mode to convert plain text to
HTML, LaTeX, etc.  When I discovered Org I thought: "Wow.  This is the
perfect tool for playing with ideas I'm too lazy to implement in BHL."
And it turned out to be much more than that: Org has been a matrix for
many new ideas that I couldn't have dreamt for with BHL.

Org is to Emacs what Emacs is to computers.

And nothing compares to the Org community.

# Bernt Hansen ----------------------------------------------------------------

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Bernt Hansen
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/HansenBernt.jpg]]

I am a freelance software designer working from my office near Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.  I use Org-mode to track all of my personal and
business tasks.

Org-mode was the end of my long quest to find a better organizational
toolkit.  I had tried many other systems over the years in an attempt to
get organized.

I started using Org-mode in August 2006 after trying out planner for a
year.  I needed something to track time spent on tasks and a note filing
system where I could actually find the notes back again and in a
reasonable amount of time.  Being able to actually read the note was an
added bonus -- my handwriting is awful - especially when I'm in a hurry
such as making notes during a client conversation.  Fortunately for me I
can type faster than I can write.

Since then Org-mode has continued to evolve and it has many more
features than I will ever need from my organizational software suite.
I'm no longer searching for a better organizational toolkit.

# Wes Hardaker ----------------------------------------------------------------

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Wes Hardaker
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/HardakerWes.jpg]]

I like to bite off more than I can chew on a regular basis.  I'm
actively involved in a ton of things.  I'm an avid
[[http://www.capturedonearth.com/][Photographer]], a
[[http://www.ws6z.com/][Amateur Radio]] enthusiast, and Community
Emergency Response Team supporter.  I love hiking
([[http://www.openstreetmap.org/][making maps of everywhere I go]])
and enjoy finding [[http://yamar.geoqo.org/][Geocaches]].  All of this
takes coordination, organization and careful tracking of the things
that I have yet to accomplish.  I think faster than my fingers can
frequently write down [[http://pontifications.hardakers.net][my ideas and thoughts]].

Org-mode has certainly made managing my overwhelming
list of things I need to do, want to do or simply thinking of much
easier.  I don't feel nearly as lost since I've started using it.

I participate in a [[http://www.hardakers.net/][large number]]
of [[http://www.hardakers.net/][open source projects]]
(both for work and pleasure) and have contributed at least
[[https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-export-generic.php][at least
a little bit to org]] via my org-export-generic functionality.

Thanks a bunch to Carsten and everyone else for writing such a
wonderful package!

# Manuel Hermenegildo --------------------------------------------------------

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Manuel Hermenegildo

I am a researcher (and the director of) a research institute and a
university research group, both in Computer Science.  Org has had a
huge positive impact in the way I organize my (unfortunately many)
tasks --and in fact my life as a whole. It is also used by many people
in the institute and the research groups I am part of. Here is how:

We participate in a large number of projects, from research projects
to taskforces regarding many organizational aspects of our institute,
and we make extensive and collaborative use of org to get organized
within them. We used /shared/ org files, essentially one per project,
to gather our notes, tasks, deadlines, etc. for that project.  These
files are kept in a server and we edit them collaboratively using svn
or git. People include as their org-agenda-files only the org files of
the projects they are involved in.  We use tags to assign tasks to
people (e.g., my tag is :MH:).  We also have of course private org
files, where we use FILETAGS to assign all the tasks in the files to
the owner of the file.  Then, we use tag filters to generate agendas
and TODO lists that only have our tasks. This is far simpler and more
flexible than any of the other methods of getting organized that we
have seen so far!  And it is all in simple ASCII files and through
emacs... happiness.

I have also contributed a bit to org development, mainly some aspects
that help support the model described above, some issues related to
the generation of web pages, and minor things here and there.

I cannot say as others that org is the main reason I use emacs: in
fact, it is scary to think about when I started using emacs (1983?).
But org has done something truly amazing: make emacs even more useful
(and very much so!)  than it already was for me. Try it for yourself
--you will not be disappointed!

# Tassilo Horn ----------------------------------------------------------------

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Tassilo Horn

I started using Emacs about the same time I've switched to GNU/Linux
around 1999.  When people are saying they switched to Emacs because of
org-mode, for me it was the Gnus newsreader, which I'm still using
today.

Over the time, I've learned elisp and gotten my hands dirty in several
projects, like EMMS, Gnus, and Circe.  And I'm the author of doc-view,
which is integrated in Emacs 23.  In org-mode, I'm in charge of the
linking stuff between Org and Gnus.

Org has become the most important part of my workflow: if I didn't
org-capture it, it won't be done!

In my free time, I'm trying to do as much crazy stuff as possible:
parachuting, hang gliding, rock climbing, snowboarding, and cooking!
Believe me, the last thing's the most dangerous.

On my day job, I'm a researcher at the Institute for Software
Technology at the University Koblenz-Landau, where my main interests
are MDA and especially model transformations.

You can find me as tsdh on IRC in #emacs, #gnus, and #org-mode.

# Andrew Hyatt ----------------------------------------------------------------

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Andrew Hyatt
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/HyattAndrew.jpg]]

During my first year of college, I was introduced to emacs, and I've
been increasing my usage of it ever since.  I use it to read mail,
chat, code in C++, Java, and Python, and of course organize my work
with org-mode.

Previous to org-mode, I tried out many different GTD-style systems,
but found them all annoyingly inflexible or inefficient.  Now I use
org-mode to plan out my tasks in my own quasi-GTD system, show me what
there is to work on, take notes while I'm working on tasks, and time
how long I spend working on tasks.  My contributions to org are the
org-screen module (for linking to screen sessions), and schedule-based
tracking in org-depend. I have some ideas for further contributions
that will have to wait until my next long flight (which is when I tend
to do all my org-mode hacking).

Right now, I'm spending most of my emacs hacking time working to
[[http://code.google.com/p/wave-client-for-emacs/][integrate emacs with Google Wave]]

I've been working as a software engineer since 1997, both around
Silicon Valley and currently in New York City.  Besides work, I hang
out with my family, eat out at interesting restaurants, try and
perfect my pizza-making and cappuccino-making skills, exercise, and
read interesting books.  For current activities, see
http://twitter.com/andrewhyatt.

# Shidai Liu (aka Leo) ------------------------------------------------------------------

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Shidai Liu (Leo)
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/LiuShidai.jpg]]

=Planner= got me started on =Emacs= in late 2005 after seeing some of it's
cool features.  One year later (October 2006) I moved to =Org=,
realising how much more powerful it was, plus the vibrant community it
has.  From then on =Org= has been the focal point of my pure emacs-based
personal information manager (=Org=, =Gnus=, =BBDB=, =Calendar=, =Diary=, etc.).
Here is a list of things I use Emacs for:

|-------------------------+-------------------|
| TASKS                   | EMACS SOLUTION    |
|-------------------------+-------------------|
| Email/News              | Gnus              |
| Version control systems | Magit + VC        |
| Calculator              | Calc              |
| Shell                   | EShell            |
| Task/time management    | Org               |
| Common lisp development | SLIME             |
| LaTeX/TeX authoring     | AUCTeX            |
| Notes taking            | Org + AUCTeX      |
| Blogging                | Gnus              |
| Addressbook             | BBDB              |
| Calendar                | Calendar          |
| Bibliography database   | BibTeX            |
| Spell checker           | Ispell + Flyspell |
| IRC                     | Rcirc             |
| File manager            | Dired             |
| Playing music           | EMMS              |
| Inputting Chinese       | Eim               |
| Dictionary              | Dictem            |
| ......                  | ......            |
|-------------------------+-------------------|

I am currently living and studying in Cambridge UK. I enjoy my
experience here and value the opportunities it gives me. Post my study
I'd like to take a break travelling while reflecting on what I should
focus in the future. But whatever I do I will use Emacs + Org!

# Pete Phillips -------------------------------------------------------------

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Pete Phillips
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/PhillipsPete.jpg]]

(I'm the one on the left btw.)

I started using org-mode in Aug 2005.  Before that I had used 3
different models of Psion organisers (II/II XP, Psion 3a, Psion 5mx),
and a Sharp Zaurus) to organise my lists/things to do. Analog-wise, I
also used a DayRunner for about 8-10 years as well as a HPDA.

In Summer/Autumn 2005 I did a [[http://ccgi.philfam.co.uk/wordpress/2005/10/05/4][blog post about moving to org-mode]] after
trying out planner mode from [[http://sachachua.com][Sacha Chua]]. During my initial period it
became clear that I needed some method of dealing with [[http://www.flippingheck.com/GTD---Back-to-basics-3---Context-and-Next-Actions][Contexts]].  I
tried various ways of using the TODO keywords with some success, but
eventually Carsten solved the problem by adding the TAGS
functionality. I tried this out for a few days and on 19th Dec 2005 I
emailed Carsten:

: On Dec 19, 2005, at 1:53 PM, Pete Phillips wrote:
:
: Hi Carsten.
:
: Just one word - Awesome!

... the combination of TODO keywords to record the status of the
item/action (Waiting, Next, Done etc) plus the use of tags to record
the context (:Home: :Laptop: :Jim: etc) was the 'Aha!' moment which
made org-mode the answer to my needs.

I have org-mode up in emacs 24 hours a day, in a frame next to my mh-e
buffer. I organise just about everything with these two emacs
tools. Whilst I use firefox/chrome for web browsing, my mail reading,
list making and diary/calendar management are all done through emacs.
[[http://ccgi.philfam.co.uk/wordpress/category/gtd][I have some blog posts about GTD and org-mode]] which may be interesting
to some.

I manage a [[http://www.smtl.co.uk/][UK NHS testing lab]] (yes - new website on the way,
honestly), with a team of scientists providing pharmaceutical QA and
medical device testing services to the Welsh NHS. Whilst I used to be
very active on the org-mode mailing list, my workload these days
doesn't allow me that luxury.  However, org-mode is more important to
me now than ever - basically I manage my life with it - work and home.
In my spare time I play jazz, and even use org-mode to keep lists of
numbers I would like to try out, contacts for jazz venues, lists of
forthcoming gigs etc.

A big thank you to Carsten for this superb tool.

[[http://www.petephillips.me.uk][Pete Phillips]]

# Giovanni Ridolfo ------------------------------------------------------------

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Giovanni Ridolfi

I started using Emacs just to use Org-mode. Then Emacs began to be my
second operating system; the first is [[http://www.debian.org][Debian GNU/Linux]], and the last
is Windows XP (bleah!).

I am a chemist, working in Bologna, Italy.  When I am not in the
laboratory, I am at the computer writing and reading reports and also
the Org-mode mailing list. I pay particular attention to the posts
concerning Windows.

I am also active in my LUG: [[http://erlug.linux.it/main/][Emilia-Romagna LUG]], since I think that
when spreading free software /the more the merrier/.

I love reading. The books I have just finished are [[http://www.wumingfoundation.com/english/about_our_books.htm][Q]] and [[http://www.enricobrizzi.it/inattesapiega/index.htm][L'inattesa
piega degli eventi]].

# T.V. Raman ------------------------------------------------------------------

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T.V. Raman
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[[./images/org-people/RamanTV.jpg]]

I am a Computer Scientist with over 11 years of industry experience in
advanced technology development. During this time, I have authored 3
books and filed over 25 patents; my work on auditory interfaces was
profied in the September 1996 issue of Scientific American. I have
leading edge expertise in Web standards, auditory interfaces and
scripting languages. I participate in numerous W3C working groups and
authored Aural CSS (ACSS); in 1996 I wrote the first ACSS
implementation. I have led the definition of XML specifications for
the next generation WWW including XForms, XML Events, and Compound
Document Formats such as X+V.

T.V. Raman is blind and uses Emacs for much of his interaction with
his computer system, because he has taught Emacs to [[http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/raman/][speak]].  I
(Carsten) have seen him using his system, and it is amazing.  You can
see him introducing Carsten Dominik during his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJTwQvgfgMM][Google Tech Talk]].  The
picture shows him with his dog /Bubbles/.

# Andreas Roehler -------------------------------------------------------------

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Andreas Roehler

Studying economics in former GDR until 1975, my diploma thesis has
been rejected as I proposed a cure employing free speech, free press,
independent unions etc.

Turned towards literature later, wrote plays, prose and poetry.
Former Bertolt Brecht Theater Berliner Ensemble staged 1993 my
adaption of Aischylos "The Persians".

Crossed the Berlin Wall in 1984 and proceeded - next turn of life came
with lecture of a book by french sociologist Serge Thion: Historical
Truth or Political Truth.

Translated the book with the help of friend and finally, as no one
would do it in Germany, published it in 1994. A lot of things stirred
up, we started a journal too.  Refusing the common power play we
invited people with quite different ideas, religions etc., published
articles from right-wing settlers as from muslim activists, published
Norman Podhoretz and Noam Chomsky likewise.

Things got hot, service took action, the computers and all the
equipment being seized again and again; seizures, which have been
forbidden by german press law beside.

Detected GNU Linux at this occasion - not to pay licenses
repeatedly. Detected Emacs - free software is a kind of free speech.

# Eric Schulte ----------------------------------------------------------------

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Eric Schulte
#+attr_html: :width 300 :style float:right;margin:0px 0px 20px 20px;
[[./images/org-people/SchulteEric.png]]

After a liberal arts education in Mathematics and Philosophy -- my
studies having deliberately excluded the applicable and computational
sciences -- I left school and spent the next 5 years working in the
research and development of computational tools.  I have now come full
circle and am [[http://www.cs.unm.edu/~eschulte/][pursuing my graduate studies]] in computer science at the
[[http://www.cs.unm.edu/][University of New Mexico]].

In 2006 I began using Emacs and roughly a year later started using
[[https://orgmode.org][Org-mode]].  Initially I used Org-mode solely for note taking.  It has
since turned into both my research laboratory and my main document
authoring tool.

I've had the pleasure of working on a couple of Org-mode related
projects -- [[file:org-tutorials/org-plot.org][org-plot]], [[file:org-contrib/org-exp-blocks.org][org-exp-blocks]], [[file:blorgit.org][blorgit]] and [[file:org-contrib/babel/index.org][org-babel]].  Writing
emacs-lisp in Emacs is a pleasure which is greatly amplified by the
thoughtful construction of Org-mode.  Its readable design, and
numerous strategically placed hooks and control variables make it the
most hackable framework I have ever encountered.

Through Emacs I realized the benefits of a truly customizable
environment, and as a result Emacs took over my OS; now Org-mode has
blurred the lines between customization and development and it is
preceding to take over my Emacs.

# Manish Sharma ---------------------------------------------------------------

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Manish Sharma

I had tried dozens of task management tools of various kinds
(web-based, browser-based, wiki-style, MS Excel-based, paper-based, MS
Outlook-based, plain text file based, Post-It based... you get the
idea) between 2003 and 2007. I really tried to like them... but
something or the other was always amiss.  Planner was the first system
that I kept going back to after trying every fancy new system; I kept
looking around until I found Org-mode around August 2007 and that was
the end of my journey. It was like finding out who you are going to
spend the rest of your life with. :)

I initially thought Org was awesome and could not be improved further
but I had underestimated Carsten, various contributors and the amazing
community of users who keep pushing the envelope of what is possible
without sacrificing the deceptive simplicity of the system.

It morphs into the perfect system to suit any new-fangled ideas I
might have about organizing and approaching work. To me, Org is like a
DIY-kit of organizers -- it scales as you grow and discover and tune
how you would like to organize your life.  I doubt if I will ever need
or use full power of Org.

# Davit O'Toole

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David O'Toole
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[[./images/org-people/OTooleDavid.jpg]]

David O'Toole is a Lisp programmer living in Massachusetts, USA.
Interests include GNU Emacs, Ubuntu, and independent games
development.

His website is http://dto.github.com/notebook

# Karl Voit --------------------------------------------------------------

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Karl Voit
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[[./images/org-people/VoitKarl.jpg]]

I started with Emacs in the 90s for composing emails, editing files,
[[http://LaTeX.TUGraz.at][writing LaTeX]]. Approximately 2004 I switched to [[http://www.vim.org/][vim]] because of
performance advantage and I was doing a project in an old AIX UNIX
environment where there was no Emacs or even vim: I actually had to
learn vi.

While switching from Emacs to vi(m) I created [[http://karl-voit.at/unmaintained/vim-emacs-cheatsheet_of_freezing_hell.shtml][The vim/emacs cheatsheet
of freezing hell]] covering both worlds.

At [[http://linuxtage.at][Grazer Linuxdays]] 2011, I attended a great "show and tell" where
someone presented Org-mode and its features related to outlining and
generating LaTeX beamer presentations. My mouth stayed open until that
day :-)

I was on the holy quest for *the* perfect Personal Information
Management (PIM) tool for almost decades: primitive Windows and
GNU/Linux software tools of the 90s, PalmOS (Handspring Deluxe, T3),
[[http://www.jpilot.org/][J-Pilot]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_Zaurus][Sharp Zaurus]], Outlook, Desktop-Wikis like [[http://zim-wiki.org/][Zim]] or [[http://www.thebrain.com/][Personal
Brain]], [[http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page][FreeMind]], and many more. Some of them I used pretty intense,
some of them I tested only a short period of time.

From 2009--2012 I was writing [[http://tagstore.org/en/papers][my PhD thesis]] in the field of PIM and
Information Architecture. You probably have heard of [[http://tagstore.org][tagstore]] which is
a research software from my project. Some basic ideas of my PhD thesis
are that the desktop metaphor (e.g., file system hierarchy) should be
replaced by more advanced technology. And the re-presentation of
information should not depend on the storage method/process but rather
on the re-find/retrieval method/process alone. Tagging seems very
promising to me.

I am also interested in having something that represents [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memex][the old idea
of a Memex]] which visualizes much of my data in a useful way. Therefore
I started an extension of Org-mode which is called [[https://github.com/novoid/Memacs][Memacs]]. Please
visit the project page when you want something easy that integrates
*lots* of different data sources such as SMS, emails, bookmarks,
tweets, and many more into your Org-mode agenda.

When I adopted [[http://julien.danjou.info/software/org-contacts.el][org-contacts]], I faced the problem that there is no
common directory or taxonomy where common properties are listed. So I
had to "invent" [[https://orgmode.org/list/2011-10-05T18-01-46@devnull.Karl-Voit.at][my own property style]] for my contacts. In January
2012, [[https://orgmode.org/list/80ipkt6wfe.fsf@somewhere.org][Sebastien Vauban also mentioned the need for a standard for
properties]]. This is when I started to commit to Worg :-) I hope that I
can add a small piece so that people do not have to re-invent the
wheel all over again.

You can visit [[http://github.com/n0v0id][my github page]] where I host several projects (not only)
related to Org-mode: Org-mode workshop, Reproducible Research with
Org-mode, extract PDF annotations to Org, ACM template for Org-mode
export, and much more. Follow me on [[https://tinyurl.com/mqpuez][Twitter]]. I also wrote my own
Org-mode weblogging system called [[https://github.com/novoid/lazyblorg][lazyblorg]] which I use to generate [[http://karl-voit.at/][my
blog]].

# Stefan Vollmar --------------------------------------------------------------

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Stefan Vollmar

I started using Emacs on large Unix systems when I was still a physics
student, but I confess to have strayed from the Path in later years,
as I had been disappointed with its lack of integration into the other
platforms I needed to use for my [[http://www.nf.mpg.de/cv/stefan-vollmar.html][work]] at the [[http://www.nf.mpg.de/index.php?L%3D1][Max Planck Institute for
Neurological Research Cologne]].

This has changed with [[http://aquamacs.org/][Aquamacs Emacs]] and newer versions of Emacs in
general. Org-mode is a very (very) good reason on its own to
re-consider Emacs - in my case, it was "love on first sight" with
Org-mode's conceptual beauty, even before I found out about the
astonishing Org community and the torrent of continuous improvements.

Org-mode was instrumental for planning our [[http://www.nf.mpg.de/kinderuni/kinderuni_en.html][Looking into Brains]]
project, also for generating its [[http://www.nf.mpg.de/kinderuni][HTML]] documentation. We have started
to use Org-mode for the software documentation of my group's
platform-independent [[http://www.nf.mpg.de/vhist][VHIST]] and [[http://www.nf.mpg.de/vinci3][VINCI]] projects and are working on an
integration with their [[http://qt.nokia.com/][Qt]]-based frameworks.

Staff members of our instiute may have a personal page for CV-related
information. We found that Org-mode works very well for this purpose
when a suitable template is provided - instructions and all template
files are [[http://www.nf.mpg.de/cv-howto/cv-en.html][online]].

Carsten Dominik gave a guest talk at our institute about [[http://www.nf.mpg.de/orgmode/guest-talk-dominik.html][Organizing a
Scientist's Life and Work]] - very convincing.

My only remaining problem with Org-mode is to communicate properly my
very own list of favorite features: it just takes too long to list
them all...

# Andrew Young ----------------------------------------------------------------

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Andrew Young

As of 2012, I am a 5th year Software Engineering and Management
student at McMaster University (Hamilton Ontario, Canada).

I have been using org-mode since 2009, where I started using it to
create class notes during my studies.  I now use it for anything and
everything I write, such as; code, planning, logging, brainstorming,
webpages, and anything that could use a touch of organization.

I became involved with org-mode development and the community through
Google Summer of Code during 2012, where I created a specialized [[https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/gsoc2012/student-projects/git-merge-tool/index.html][merge
driver]].

I am really excited about org-mode, and can't wait to see what the
future brings.

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