Depends on the case, managing 240k people every month, I think we are
not talking about a tool for you, but for your organization. If you
manage this volume, then it is justified to have a tool like a CRM that
satisfies the organization needs.
But there are cases of personal use, where you don't want to maintain
another piece of software. It is not just "love for orgmode", it is the
most advanced tool to handle your knowledge in files with advanced
functionality.
I choose for my core things plaintext files, and I am very happy with
the decision.
Talking about org contacts. I found a way that scales a lot, at least
for just one average and simple live in earth (at least for me), which
is, you have an entity file with just the metadata, on this kind of
files, a new file is automatically created related to that entity, to
fill up with notes [1]. On that file such as
`~/org/notes/contacts/contacts_1065.org' you could have lots of data
related to that contact/entity. That file, right now has 1121 headings,
12k lines, 331 KB, which compressed with zfs ends up with 181 KB, and I
don't feel lost, on the contrary, I feel I have control on my data, it
is my source of truth. If I work with others, I might use other tools
(for contacts, for tasks), maybe I export some of the data, but I still
maintain my stuff for myself.
Yes, my contacts.org file is a mess, even for me. But I can search and
filter some info, and I don't want to stop using it, that means, is
useful. And as it is an orgmode file, I can link people to the rest of
my files related to projects, journal, wiki, etc. I have a way to
complete with all contacts, that is slow, but I have a tag that is
:active: for the people I care now.
You can have an org-capture that could serve you as a form, and validate
the data you want, etc. [3]
( Some of its uses is crucial, for example, to get data to do invoices.
[2], which are marked in my case with qirdoc tag )
I did something to have "some entities" that could relate to my orgmode
files, I use an org-item main definition [4], and that "library"
instantiates org-contact (similar somehow to org-contact package, but
adapted to my needs), org-inventory, org-project, org-location (places),
org-doc (written documents), org-media (videos, audios, etc.). The idea
is always the same, you have a file to index all this kind of content
you want to work on [5], and from there, specific files. See if as a
proof of concept. Coming back to org-contacts, it took ~60 lines for
that definition, from a library with ~189 lines, most of the work is
already done with org-link. See it as a proof of concept that the
entities relationship could work.
I have been sharing all of this recently, but this org entity thing I
have been using since 2023, and from there, it evolved. At the beginning
I was thinking that I would never end adding stuff, but it stabilized,
so that means I am confortable with this, that's why I am sharing my view.
If anyone works or has worked on this concept of org identities (that
might include org-contacts, etc.) I might be interested in trying it out!
[1]
** example-contact
:PROPERTIES:
:name: Example Person
:email: [email protected]
:address: ?
:CREATED: [2025-08-29 Fri 11:25]
:CUSTOM_ID: contacts_1065
:notes: file:~/org/notes/contacts/contacts_1065.org
:END:
[2]
** one-org :qirdoc:
:PROPERTIES:
:CREATED: [2024-11-19 Tue 15:16]
:CUSTOM_ID: contacts_969
:notes: file:~/org/notes/contacts/contacts_969.org
:sname: acme
:name: ACME COOP
:nif: A123456789
:address: Address 123, Potterville
:postal: 12345
:municip: City
:provinc: Province
:email: [email protected]
:END:
[3]
https://codeberg.org/pedroberg/pinmacs-emacs-config/src/branch/main/org-capture-templates/org-contact.org?display=source
[4] see it as a proof of concept, because I am sure this contains
hardcoded stuff and might not be useful for others
https://codeberg.org/pedroberg/pinmacs-emacs-config/src/commit/38d5e05a934b54a582a7278726f07e5d5e0631fd/emacs-config.org?display=source#L4325
[5] So in general, all crazy links I get everyday might be in links from
today in the journal. All crazy links I get from specific projects might
be related just to that project. So this is about generic stuff you care
about and you think could be referenced from multiple files, projects,
events, etc. so that it is universal in your life to be there. Hence,
does not include all contacts all documents you get every day, but the
files you want to have organized. Even with that filter, if it gets lots
of items, it could continue scaling: you could archive old stuff that is
no longer relevant or generate more specific subspaces docs-books.org,
docs-papers.org, etc.
