brian d foy

We used to give the White Camel Awards out at conferences because we knew the recipients would be in the audience. As we've become more inclusive with the rest of the globe, that didn't make sense. This year, we've waited until Perl's birthday to announce the awards.

The White Camel Awards recognize outstanding, non-technical achievement in Perl. Started in 1999 by Perl mongers and later merged with The Perl Foundation, the awards committee selects three names from a long list of worthy Perl volunteers to recognize hard work in Perl Community, Perl Conferences, and Perl User Groups.

This year we took nominations through Mob Rater. We developed a long list of worthy recipients.This year, the White Camels recognize the efforts of these people whose hard work has made Perl and the Perl community a better place:

Perl Community: Thiago Rondon

If you're doing Perl in Brasil, you probably know "maluco". Not only does he run multiple business with heavy doses of Perl, but he was the leader of the São Paulo Perl mongers and the organizer of the Brasilian versions of the Perl Advent calendars, called Equinócio, which the local community runs twice a year. He's also the creator of OpenData-BR, which uses Perl to illuminate government spending data.

Perl Conferences: Wendy and Liz

If you go to enough Perl conferences, especially in Europe, you will eventually cross paths with this pair of Dutch women. You may have seen their collection of hundreds of Perl books, heard the outrageous sums of money they offer at conference auctions, or been the recipient of their quiet (and not so quiet) kindness and attention at workshops, hackathons, YAPCs, FOSDEM, and many other events. Perl is a glue language, and Wendy and Liz are glue for the Perl community. Curiously, many people immediately thought of Wendy and Liz as worthy recipients and we were surprised at the number of "no" votes in Mob Rater. It turns out Wendy was stuffing the ballot box to not get the award. That's too bad; no good deed goes unpunished.

Perl User Groups: Fred Moyer

Fred Moyer has been a fixture in the San Francisco and Bay area Perl community for years, and is the current leader of the San Francisco Perl mongers. He's always experimenting with new ways to get people involved with the local community, even if that means inviting people over to his house, manning a booth at a conference, or setting up other events. The community wouldn't be where it is today without the hard work of local organizers.