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Hello everyone! Every year, we hold a special recognition event called the Ruby Heroes Awards. The purpose of this event is to honor some of the lesser-known individuals in the Ruby community who have made significant contributions. These are people who have done extraordinary work that has had a positive impact on others in the community. We feel it’s important to acknowledge their efforts.
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We run this event on a website called RubyHeroes.com, usually at the beginning of each year. We invite community members to visit the site and nominate individuals who have positively impacted their lives as Ruby or Rails developers. We ask who has made it easier for you, created tools that help you in your work, shown kindness, or contributed to making the community better.
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Since we started this initiative in 2008, we have recognized many wonderful people. Some are well-known figures, while others are less recognized. You may see some familiar faces that have gone on to achieve great things. This year, we received 454 nominations and 133 nominees, all of whom were recognized by their peers. A committee of 20 past heroes evaluated these nominations. Our goal is to minimize the aspect of popularity in the selection process and honor those who are genuinely making a difference.
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This year, we are excited to announce nine new heroes, which is a record for us! In the past, we have recognized up to eight in a single year, but never this many. We’ll keep the presentations brief.
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Before we start, I’d like to take a moment to thank those who helped us organize this event. First, thanks to Ruby Central for their assistance in making this event possible. It can be quite challenging to coordinate everything.
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I also want to thank the Code School team for allowing us the time to prepare and work on this event every year. And finally, thank you to all of you. Your participation is vital, and it’s important to acknowledge when someone does something nice. Take the time to talk to those who make a difference.
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Remember, encouraging others, especially in a gathering like this, can significantly boost their spirits during tough times. Now, let's dive into the awards. I’ll provide some quick instructions. We've tried hard to bring everyone here, and if someone isn't present, let’s give them a round of applause as they arrive.
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I’ll also share a quote from the nominations to give you a sense of each nominee's impact. First up, we recognize Coraline Ada Ehmke for her tireless efforts in improving the open-source community, particularly for her work on the Contributor Covenant, which has been invaluable in fostering a more inclusive environment for everyone involved.
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Next, we honor Akira Matsuda, a long-time contributor to Ruby and Rails. He organizes the RubyKaigi, a prominent Ruby conference in Tokyo, and is the author of several widely-used gems that have greatly benefitted the community.
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Now, let's acknowledge the Rails Girls team, which has raised nearly half a million dollars over the past four years to support women in programming. This initiative has brought many into the world of coding and contributed to open-source projects.
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We also celebrate Koichi Sasada for his significant contributions to improving the Ruby implementation. His work on garbage collection and overall performance improvements has had a substantial impact on the language.
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Richard Schneeman is next, known for his insightful articles that address key issues in the Ruby community. His ability to focus on important topics while providing practical solutions makes him a highly respected member of our community.
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Finally, we honor Avdi Grimm for his dedication to elevating Ruby developers through his work on podcasts, books, and community engagement. He has played a vital role in helping many developers improve their skills and become better practitioners.
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And let's not forget Charles Nutter, who has been a driving force behind the JRuby project. His commitment to making JRuby faster and more efficient continues to enable enterprises around the globe to adopt Ruby as a viable programming language.
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Thank you all for joining us today to celebrate these incredible individuals. Remember to keep being nice to those who enhance your life daily. Thank you!
