2010 Plone Help Channel Superstar Awards

A chance to acknowledge those who go above and beyond in supporting people on our help channel--our help channel superstars!

Are you a Plone Help Channel Superstar? Have you been helped by one? The Plone Foundation is pleased to announce the 2010 Plone Help Channel Superstar Awards, where we recognize outstanding community members who provide volunteer tech support in the #plone IRC support channel.

The #plone IRC support channel is the Plone community's free, volunteer-powered, 24-hour-a-day live helpline. Unlike many other open-source IRC channels, #plone is incredibly active, newbie-friendly and it's the number one way to get immediate help with both simple and complicated Plone questions.

None of this would be possible without the many Plone community members who volunteer their time and expertise to field questions. Their passion, experience and wisdom is vital to "smoothing the on-ramp" to Plone for new users. We're proud to honor and recognize them through this award process.

The Rules

It's simple. If you spot someone in the act of being a "Help Channel Superstar," nominate them using this handy form.

Nominations open now, and close December 20th, 2010

We'll then open a (very) quick round of Plone community-wide voting during the week of December the 22nd to the 27th to narrow the field of nominees down to the top 5.

An all-star panel of judges will then choose the winners by December 29th, just in time for the New Year!

How Do I Recognize a Plone Help Channel Superstar?

The characteristics of Plone Help Channel Superstars could include (but are not limited to):

  • Extreme helpfulness to new Plone users.
  • Conspicuous persistence in tackling unusual or complicated questions.
  • Creating a welcoming environment for everyone.


For tips on learning how to be an IRC superstar, see How to Be a Plone Help Channel Superstar.

Prizes

Grand prize

One supremely helpful grand prize winner will receive free admission to Plone Conference 2011 in a location to be announced and a USD$1000 travel stipend to get them there (Total value: around USD$1250).

Second prize
Free entry in to Plone conference 2011 courtesy of the Plone foundation.

Honorable mention
The thrill of being acknowledged as one of the Help channel superstars alongside the possibility of lots of free beer at the next conference!

Thanks to our sponsors

The Plone Foundation wishes to thank Devaus Oy for sponsoring the 2010 PHC Superstar awards.

Meet the Judges

  • Steve McMahon (stevem) is most famous as the author and maintainer of several stellar add-on products, most noticeably PloneFormGen. He is a principal at Reid-McMahon. Steve has served on the Plone Foundation board for the past two terms, and currently serves as Board Secretary.
  • Jon Stahl (jonstahl) is a Senior Strategist at Groundwire, which provides technology and communications strategy assistance to environmental nonprofits. Jon organized the 2006 Seattle Plone Conference and the 2008 Plone Strategic Planning Summit. He is currently serving his third term on the Plone Foundation board of directors.
  • Matthew Wilkes (matthewwilkes) is a prolific developer in the Plone project, with significant code in core Plone and add-ons. He helped mentor during Google Code-In and the Google Summer of Code. Matthew works for Jarn AS in Germany and serves on the Plone 4 framework team.
  • David Glick (davisagli) some say David is the re-incarnation of G. W. von Leibniz, others that he is an android from the lost city of Atlantis, we just know he’s a frigging genius and a key Plone core developer, David was last year’s PHC superstar award winner and works for Groundwire.
  • Virginia Choy Is a Business Development Manager and long term community member, she advocates at the grass roots level for open source and Plone and founded the rocking PretaWeb Plone company in 2004.
  • Wyn Williams (asigottech) is a senior systems consultant at Devaus and Plone foundation member. Wyn's networking and sysadmin experience help to keep the Plone community connected and working efficiently.

The Fine Print

  • Anyone can nominate anyone. Individuals can nominate themselves. Individuals can nominate several people, once per form entry.
  • Current Plone Foundation board members and 2010 Help Channel Superstar Contest judges are not eligible.
  • The purpose of the community vote is to help the judges narrow the candidates down to a set of finalists. The decision of the judges is final.
  • Prizes cannot be redeemed for cash or beer.