From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Matthew Lundin Subject: Re: Sourceforge community award Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:20:45 -0500 Message-ID: <87bpouo9v6.fsf@fastmail.fm> References: <4AA80F05-FECC-427D-BD20-E5AD3F273C1E@gmail.com> <4A2F52EA.6080105@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1MEpo8-0007a9-Qr for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:19:28 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1MEpo4-0007Uk-9A for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:19:28 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=55601 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1MEpo4-0007UN-0W for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:19:24 -0400 Received: from out2.smtp.messagingengine.com ([66.111.4.26]:40700) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1MEpo3-0004Kr-OA for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:19:23 -0400 In-Reply-To: <4A2F52EA.6080105@gmail.com> (Brian van den Broek's message of "Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:30:02 -0400") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Brian van den Broek Cc: "[orgmode] list" First let me say congratulations to Carsten and everyone else on receiving this honor. Org-mode deserves every bit of recognition it receives! Brian van den Broek writes: >> 1. Complete this sentence in about 140 characters: "Our project is >> [-foo-]." For example, "Our project is a tool that helps you wash your >> car." > > Org-mode allows you to master your personal and project information > your way, in plain text, with features which stay out of your way > until you want them, all backed by the power of Emacs. > > (I didn't notice a mention of Emacs in other suggestions; seems > essential to me.) I very much like Brian's description of org-mode. I think it does a nice job of capturing the power and flexibility of the tool. I myself have been puzzling over this question and haven't been able to come up with a pithy sentence that sums up the full scope org-mode. While I think that org-mode is first and foremost a productivity tool, those unfamiliar with it might be inclined to see it as just "one more GTD application." But as org-mode aficionados know, it is much, much more. It is an outliner (the best ever, IMHO), a wiki, a publishing environment, a note-taking tool, an ad-hoc database system, a spreadsheet editor, a bookmark manager, etc. In addition to managing todos and projects, org-mode allows one to perform in one place all sorts of little tasks (making quick tables, storing random bits of information, organizing web bookmarks, etc) that would otherwise require several big GUI applications to accomplish. And it does so in data that is fully portable. In this sense, Emacs and org-mode offer a truly integrated computing environment. Org-mode can operate as a simple outliner and scheduler; but it can also easily serve as a digital hub that manages and links to everything else. This is something that other applications often promise---and that many pundits point to as the future of "cloud" computing---but that remains, for many computer users, an elusive dream. Org mode takes us "back to the future," as it were. On the one hand, it takes us back to the basics of plain text. On the other hand, it points towards a future of truly integrated computing, in which the walls surrounding big, old-fashioned GUI applications and closed operating systems are broken down. That's not 140 characters, alas. Congratulations again! - Matt