If you look at the previous winners, you'll notice that these are mostly unsung heroes, like previous awardee Eric Cholet, the human moderator of so many Perl mailing lists, or Jay Hannah, one of the people running pm.org (if you ever created/maintained a pm group, chances are that Jay walked you through the process).

Some of these people may be well known, like Allison Randal or Randal Schwartz, while others may be complete strangers to at least part of the globe, like Josh McAdams or Jay. Some of them may be extreme Perl hackers who created the original JAPH, but they actually received this award as a recognition for their community contributions to Perl.

That's not to say a great hacker can't receive the award, but you don't have to be one in order to be eligible.

That being said, the nomination process for the 2008 White Camels is now open.

If you think there's someone who deserves a White Camel, this is the time for you to send in your nominations. Send them to jose@pm.org, if possible with a subject along the lines of "White Camel Nomination :: $name". Make sure you properly identify the nominee and tell us why you think that's a worthy nomination.

Don't go thinking "nah, somebody else will do it" because: a) everybody else may be thinking the same, and b) you may state your case differently than the next person.

We'll be receiving nominations until June 11, 2008, by midnight, but don't wait up or you'll forget. Do it now!