For journalists, podcast hosts, conference organisers, and anyone who wants the story
Martijn Aslander (53) has spent 25 years as a speaker, author, and practitioner at the intersection of personal knowledge management, information architecture, and digital fitness. He has given 2,500+ presentations, written 17 books, founded the European PKM Summit, and co-founded the Digital Fitness movement that reaches 1,000+ organisations annually in the Netherlands.
In December 2025, he coined the term Life Lens System to describe something no existing term covered: a personal information architecture that lets you look at your own life through many perspectives using data you already possess. His implementation, ThetaOS, contains 560,000+ records spanning 20 years, with an AI companion named Tom that can query the system in real-time.
What makes this unusual: Aslander is not a programmer. He built ThetaOS at age 53, after recovering from a stroke, using AI as his development partner. The system models itself on the human brain — with synapses, myelin, and evidence layers — and demonstrates that the future of personal AI is not about smarter models, but about better-structured personal data.
Martijn opens his system on stage. The audience picks a topic. Tom — his AI companion — searches 560,000 records in real-time. No slides, no scripts. Proven at the PKM Summit 2026, Wonders of Work, Troi (law enforcement), and 50+ other events.
Can discuss: the Life Lens System concept, the 250-year lineage, building without programming, stroke recovery and data, digital fitness, PKM, the future of personal AI. English or Dutch.
"From scattered data to personal ontology." Participants map their own information architecture. Suitable for knowledge workers, information professionals, and PKM practitioners.
Author of 17 books and 400+ published articles. Can deliver op-eds, long-form essays, or technical explainers.
| Full name | Martijn Aslander |
| Born | August 4, 1972, Stadkanaal, Netherlands |
| Based | Haarlem, Netherlands |
| Presentations | 2,500+ in 13 countries |
| Countries spoken in | Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, UK, Ireland, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Romania, South Africa, United States, China, Iran, Pakistan |
| Books | 17 (including Nooit af, Easycratie, Starten met Obsidian) |
| Founded | European PKM Summit (2024), Stichting Digitale Fitheid (2019), Permanent Beta Festival (2014), Seats2Meet.com (2007) |
| Fellowship | KNVI (Royal Dutch Association of Information Professionals) |
| Coined terms | Life Lens System (2025), Digitale Fitheid / Digital Fitness (2019) |
| Key clients | NS, Politie, Rijksoverheid, UWV, Belastingdienst, SER |
| Languages | Dutch (native), English (fluent) |
| ORCID | 0009-0004-2344-0620 |
As We May Think Has Become Real — Aria Khodaverdi (March 2026). First external in-depth analysis. Places ThetaOS in the lineage of Vannevar Bush, Doug Engelbart, and Ted Nelson.
European PKM Summit — Annual conference founded by Aslander, where ThetaOS was first demonstrated live (March 2026).
Hey World blog — Primary publication channel for the Life Lens System thinking.