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Thank you.
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Now we're going to go straight into the Ruby Hero Awards. Since I have you all here, let me introduce Greg Pollock.
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Thank you. We'll take a moment here to get some of these awards ready, but first, let me give you a quick rundown for those who may not know about the Ruby Hero Awards.
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This event began with some podcasting. Initially, I started the Rails Envy podcast, and later we launched Ruby 5, which we still produce weekly, discussing the latest news in the Ruby and Rails community.
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Through these shows, we began to notice there were individuals in our community who give and contribute extensively, much like Aaron here. Let's give a quick round of applause for Aaron.
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Thus, we created the Ruby Hero Awards. This is our chance to recognize and honor individuals who have made significant contributions by giving them awards, bringing them on stage, and offering them the applause they truly deserve.
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Over the years, we have had several Ruby Heroes. This is our fifth year, and it started with some remarkable individuals from 2009, through to 2010, and then 2011.
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These individuals play a crucial role in advancing our community and making progress.
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So how does the nomination process work? A couple of months ago, we launched a website, rubyheroes.com, and we welcome nominations from anyone in the community.
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This year, we received a total of 834 nominations, which is quite an impressive increase from the 465 nominations we had last year. It's a clear sign that our community is thriving.
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Once the nominations are in, we reach out to the previous Ruby Heroes, discuss who received the most votes, and then have a conversation about who truly deserves the recognition based on their contributions over the years.
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This year, we will be awarding six individuals, and hopefully, they will all be here to accept their awards with us.
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Before we jump into presenting the awards, I want to emphasize that this event is all about showing appreciation. There's a tendency for vocal minorities to express skepticism towards our Heroes.
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Sometimes, the negativity from a small group can overshadow the positive contributions made by many. I encourage all of you to express gratitude to those who’ve helped you, whether through open-source projects, assistance on IRC, or contributions to mailing lists.
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A simple 'thank you' can make a big difference and help counteract negativity, ensuring that we continue to foster a supportive environment for great work in our community.
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I also want to thank our sponsors. Code School helped fund the awards and is running the beginner track here at the conference.
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They provided some great resources on Rails best practices which were shared in a tutorial at RailsConf last year, benefiting many developers.
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A special thanks goes to a French conference in Lyon that assisted us this year by providing awesome Ruby Hero t-shirts for the award winners.
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Alright, I will now start calling out the names of our Ruby Heroes. When I call your name, please come to the stage to shake hands with Aaron, receive your award, and stay on stage for a group picture at the end.
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Our first hero has made significant contributions to well-known Ruby libraries, including major contributions to Rack and Rubinius, and he recently became the maintainer of Sinatra. He's well-known for his helpfulness on both mailing lists and IRC.
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Please give a big round of applause for Constantine!
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Congratulations!
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The next hero has released a multitude of Open Source libraries, starting with an older project called Revactor. He also created Coolio, which includes a fantastic README that demonstrates how to build an event-driven Echo server.
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In addition to that, he developed new IO for Ruby, DCell, and Raya, a Ruby-like scripting language for the Erlang virtual machine. He also writes an insightful blog which we often cover on Ruby 5.
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Allow me to introduce Tony Arcieri! Congratulations!
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Next, we have a contributor who has significantly impacted the JRuby project by enhancing its embedding APIs. This enables more Java users to incorporate Ruby into their Java applications.
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Additionally, she helps maintain Nokogiri, specifically its JRuby part. If you use JRuby and Nokogiri, then you're benefiting from her work. Please welcome Yoko Harada!
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Congratulations!
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Our next hero has been deeply involved in the Ruby community for quite some time, especially in the field of Rails internationalization. If you've worked with the Globalize gem, you should be aware of his significant contributions.
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Back in September 2007, he collaborated with other enthusiasts to embed internationalization features into Rails, culminating in the release of Rails 2.2 in November 2008. He even authored the internationalization guide.
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It's impressive to note how he continues to contribute to the community. Please welcome Sven Fuchs!
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Congratulations!
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The final three heroes have been pillars in the Ruby community for years, consistently dedicating their efforts to enhance our ecosystem.
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This individual is crucial to the development of both Ruby documentation and RubyGems. Please welcome Eric Hodel!
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Congratulations!
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Let's gather all the 2012 Ruby Heroes for a final round of applause!
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Thank you, everyone.