Nominate Tech folks for I am Oregon

Hi all,

There's a campaign currently running to nominate inspiring Oregonians for recognition, known as: I Am Oregon. The idea is to show appreciation and give recognition to people who do an awful lot to make life in Oregon better. So far nonprofit leaders, doctors, major givers, community leaders and others have been nominated. They are all very deserving and most of the existing nominations are inspiring, but you know who always falls through the cracks? Us! Open source tech people.

My organization is sponsoring this contest so I know nonprofits will feature strongly, but I'd like to see open source feature too. I may sound idealistic, but I sincerely believe that we open source folks are on the side of good and are making the world a better place. Those of us working on major open source projects are having an impact. Ours is a gift community, one where paying it forward is integral to what we do. We create software that makes it affordable for small businesses, nonprofits, local government, etc to thrive and grow. Some of us have worked on projects that directly help their community to thrive, be it by helping nonprofits or community organizing groups, or by making tools that they can affordably use. We are driven by a volunteer ethic.

Another group often forgotten by us is the people who make our communities possible. They run services like Calagator and other tools to facilitate our communities. They run affordable conferences like Open Source Bridge, BarCamp and many others, where we can go to and expand our knowledge and contacts, and to share and collaborate. They run our user groups, organize meetings, get involved with beginner events and so on. They make our communities possible and what they do trickles down through us to many projects that help our state to thrive. And they help us to grow, learn, be more successful and be more effective in how we help others. The amount of volunteer hours they give to us is astonishing... and extremely effective.

The work we OS folks do affects Oregon and beyond, yet campaigns like I Am Oregon rarely feature members of our community. We do good in this world, so I'd like to suggest that you all go to http://www.iamoregon.org/ and nominate these folks that deserve a little recognition. Volunteers get paid via thanks, recognition and pride in their work. Here's a chance for us to pay them back in a small way and it takes just a few minutes.

The last day to make nominations is November 14. There is no limit to the number of nominations you can make and you can nominate anyone, tech or not. Nominate early and often.

Have a great weekend.

Grant Kruger
Software Engineer
Meyer Memorial Trust