There are many people in the Ruby community who contribute to our blossoming ecosystem. Some do this by producing educational content and others by contributing to open source libraries or helping out newcomers to the Ruby language. Every week I do my best to help promote the work of these people by talking about the most interesting bits on the Rails Envy Podcast. However, sometimes it just doesn’t seem like enough.

There are some developers who contribute to the community above and beyond the others. These people don’t always get the recognition they deserve, which is why last year I put together the Ruby Hero Awards. Hundreds of people submitted nominations and at RailsConf 2008 we gave away 6 awards to people in our community who deserved a round of applause.

Last year we gave awards to Ryan Bates, Yehuda Katz, Ilya Grigorik, Evan Weaver, Tom Copeland, and James Edward Gray II. This year we’re looking for 6 more people to give awards to and we need your nominations to figure out who you think deserves one. Three things to keep in mind here:

• We’re looking for people who do not get their deserved recognition. For example, any of those Rails Activists and Rails Core members are out of the running.

• When you submit a nomination you’ll have to enter 25 words as to why you think someone should be nominated.

• The final 6 award winners will be determined by having the 6 winners from the previous year voting on them. The nominations you submit will certainly play a big factor in this decision, but won’t be the determining factor (this keeps things from turning into a popularity contest). So please don’t post to your blog telling all your friends to “Nominate You”, it ain’t gonna work.

The 6 winners will be announced on stage at RailsConf 2009, which is just around the corner. So if you know someone Ruby or Rails community who deserves some recognition, please take 2 minutes and submit a nomination for them.

Photo Credits: Ruby Hero Awards by Duncan Davidson, IMG_5428 by wyros