Linden Lab announces winners of 2008 Hippo Awards

by Tateru Nino Sep 8th 2008 at 1:00PM

Linden Lab has announced the winners of this year's Hippo Awards (otherwise known as the Linden Lab Innovation Awards), which focus on the open-source community that surrounds their virtual environment, Second Life.

This is the second set of Hippo Awards (the inaugural edition taking place last year in 2007), and while you might not recognize all of the names, each of the winners has contributed positively to Second Life, albeit sometimes in subtle or indirect ways.

Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Nominations for the candidates was through Linden Lab's public JIRA issue tracker, and the nominees' contributions were assessed by a panel of six unknown judges.

Best Documentation

Honorable mentions: Gellen Glenelg, Strife Onizuka, SignpostMarv Martin, Catherine Pfeffer
Winners (tie): Asuka Neely and Gally Young

Best Organizer (Issue Tracker)

Honorable mentions: Ellla McMahon, Lex Neva, WarKirby Magojiro
Winner: Harleen Gretzky

Best Organizer (Working Group)

Honorable mentions: Zha Ewry, Saijanai Kuhn
Winner: Tao Takashi

Best Code Contribution

Honorable mentions: McCabe Maxsted, Seg Baphomet
Winner: Mm Adler

The Jesse Malthus Award for Best Community Influence

Winner: Lex Neva

Contributor of the year:

Honorable mentions: Whoops Babii, Carjay McGinnis, Alissa Sabre, Gigs Taggart
Winner: Michelle2 Zenovka

Prizes

This year's winners receive:

Cash gifts to their Second Life accounts (Contributor of the Year receives US$500, other category winners each receive US$300)
2008 Hippo Winner badge
Complimentary land grant on Linden Lab's open source island Hippotropolis for one year
Complimentary concierge-level service for one year
Custom last name for a new avatar
Hippopotamus figurine ... with a sterling silver Second Life Eye-in-Hand logo necklace.

Considering Linden Lab's nearly stern and distant corporate face these days, it is still nice that they take the time to publicly recognize a handful of Second Life's tireless contributors. Mind you, also considering that corporate face, you'd think that they'd proofread and get the spelling and names right too. You can't, it seems, have everything.

Tags: alissa-sabre, asuka-neely, carjay-mcginiss, catherine-pfeffer, ella-mcmahon, gally-young, gellen-glenelg, gigs-taggart, harleen-gretzky, hippo-awards, hippotropolis, jesse-malthus, lex-neva, linden-lab, mccabe-maxsted, michelle2-zenovka, mm-adler, saijanai-kuhn, second-life, seg-baphomet, signpostmarv-martin, strife-onizuka, tao-takashi, warkirby-magojiro, whoops-babii, zha-ewry