Plone Metrics Person of the Year

Just like every year, outstanding contributions have been made from a large number of Plonistas worldwide.  It's been a eventful year for Plone and that makes 2011's throwdown especially difficult.  Disclaimer:  Plone Metrics Person of the Year is in no way officially affiliated with Plone or its Foundation, but represents my personal effort to thank the whole community that makes the Plone ecosystem tick. 

Noteworthy contributions during 2011 that deserve a shout-out include, but are not limited to:

• The 2011 Plone Conference people aka bunny ears (and panda hats) did a great job with this year's event.  I notice that Elizabeth Leddy, the energizer bunny of the conference, and probably some others, are missing from the Thank you page. 
• All of those who have blogged and microblogged about Plone are another group of supporters who contribute simply by communicating your ideas, thoughts, and solutions.  Thanks to Planet Plone for pulling so many blogs together. 
• Along those lines, Marc Corum, even thought he has stepped down from the Plone Board, is pushing to re-energize the Plone Communication and Marketing Teams.  
• The core developers and release managers definitely need a huge shout-out for all the essential work they do. 
  
• There continues to be some local Albuquerque talent in this year's nominees:  Michael Bernstein (helping out at with our Chem Security site) and Alex and Chantal at FosterMilo.
• As always, the Foundation Board gets a great big nod of appreciation here.  Calvin Hendryx-Parker, past-Prez, gets my admiration just for wearing the shiny pants. 

This leaves me with a terrible burden--coming up with the one and only best of the best, the single Plone Metrics Person of the Year.  Casting about for some stats to back up my decidedly unscientific process leads me to the following two tables.

Table 1.  Core Developers and number of postings

Andreas Jung (ajung)	5549
Alexander Limi	2760
Espen Moe-Nilssen (espen)	1310
Martin Aspeli	1296
Jon Stahl	1257
Alex Clark (aclark)	981
Laurence Rowe	879
Graham Perrin	871
redcor	848
Mayank Patel (monks)	607
Dale DeWitt	589
George L	549
John Destefano (deesto)	486
JonStahl	464
Israel Saeta Pérez	443
Kees Hink	415
Mikko Ohtamaa	373
Eric Steele (esteele)	356
Vincent Fretin	356
Nate Aune (natea)	349

These are the top 20 people in the Core Developers forum as ranked by postings. It strongly argues for Andreas Jung to win the prize.  He's been contributing right through the holidays, not even slowing down for Festivus. If I hadn't been tipping the Aberfeldy 12-year tonight, I'd go look at the number of commits each of these have contributed in the past year, but for now, number of posts on the forum will do. 

Table 2.  Plone Foundation Board Members and Advisers with number of terms served.

Alexander Limi*	7
Toby Roberts	6
Geir Bækholt	5
Joel Burton*	5
Jon Stahl	4
Matt Hamilton	4
Steve McMahon	4
Mark Corum	3
Nate Aune*	3
Paul Everitt	3
Calvin Hendryx-Parker	2
Darci Hanning	2
Geoff Davis	2
Roberto Allende	2
Xavier Heymans	2
Alan Runyan	1
Andy McKay	1
Ben Saller	1
Bernard Bühlmann	1
Jacqueline Arasi	1
Jodok Batlogg	1
Mark Barrenechea	1
Munwar Shariff	1
Robert Boulanger	1
Sam Greenblatt	1
Sasha Vinçic	1

* Previous Plone Metrics Person of the Year

When I compiled a listing of all the past year's Board members, I was not surprised to see Alexander Limi at the top of the list.  What amazed me is that Toby Roberts is in the number two spot.  He has been the unsung hero, serving as Treasurer for every year except 2004 (when Matt Hamilton had the job). I presume he is doing the job this year, although I don't see it on the 2011-12 Foundation page.

Based on the above two tables, I'm going to toss a coin (heads: Andreas; tails: Toby).  Both have significantly contributed to Plone, both in 2011 and in the long haul.

And this year's winner of a free beer from me, is (drum roll, please)... Toby Roberts.

Just remember, Toby may be today's Plone Metrics Person of the Year, but each day every one of the members of the Plone community are winners.  And you all have my thanks.  
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The author welcomes comments that commend others involved with Plone.  This brief blog post can't do justice to all the hard and creative work that's being done throughout the year.