Finalist in the New Zealand Open Source Awards
Thursday, 27 September 2007
Two days ago I received an email notifying me that I had been nominated as New Zealand’s Open Source Ambassador in the forthcoming New Zealand Open Source Awards, and that I had been judged a finalist. I was both honoured and humbled by this news and decided to share it with some colleagues.
“Oh, yeah, we knew that”, was the response. It seems that nominations have been a hot topic across the web and while I knew about the awards, I did not take the time to read any of the press releases or postings on various websites. It seems others had and “my” news had been reported in Computerworld on 13th September. You can read the article online here: Computerworld New Zealand
The announcement of the finalists was made yesterday.
The official press release is here: http://www.nzosa.org.nz/news
I will be attending the gala function in Wellington and am looking forward to catching up with old friends and colleagues and meeting up with some folk I know only through their achievements. It is an amazing honour to be part of this inaugural award ceremony and regardless of the final results, being nominated alone makes me feel like a winner. My work though, is all about team work. Whether it’s my work with Mambo, with Disastersearch or with the community or city council, nothing is achieved without a good team of people working together towards a common goal. I am privileged to be able to lead some wonderful, dedicated and talented people in the work I do outside of the council chamber. THAT is the true reward!
No. 1 — November 8th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Congratulations about your nomination! I personally know, even though we have never met in person due the distance, of your hard work on this project, and also of your commitment with the disastersearch.org cause. You really deserve the recognition!
No. 2 — November 10th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Hola Ezequiel!
Thanks for your comments - muchas gracias.
Disastersearch would never have happened without the team. It was all team work that resulted in us helping so many people. None of it would have happened without you, Dr John Long, and our other volunteers. Every member of the team deserves recognition - those were some pretty amazing hours we all put in, over a long period of time. And disastersearch is STILL being used to reunite people, two years after Katrina. Who would have thought geeks could make such a difference eh?
Awards are nice, but the greatest honour of all was being part of a great team. None of us have ever met in person, but I feel privileged to have worked with you and the others, and made some life-long friendships along the way.