Packt Publishing has recently been holding their annual CMS Awards which are determined by a combination of public voting and private judging. This year they introduced a new category, allowing community members from each CMS to vote for an "MVP" to honor those who the community believes should be recognized as providing the most valuable contributions to the project.

I can imagine that there were many choices in the voting, as we have a large community full of some very dedicated people who spend every day furthering the cause of Drupal, but at the end of the voting I was selected as Drupal's MVP, on the strength of the Views module combined with the other things I do. (Also mentioned here)

I am extremely honored to get this award, but I want to make sure that this does not diminish the hardworking contributions of dozens of others who make Drupal what it is. Everyone knows Dries Buytaert, of course, who has spent the last 7 or 8 years of his life making Drupal what it is and is looking to continue to do so as long as it remains viable. And everyone knows Angela Byron, AKA webchick, who was recently honored for her contributions and they are richly deserved! But there are also people like, and forgive me for dropping out an incomplete list, but Jeff Eaton, Karoly Negyesi, Derek Wright, Addison Berry, Greg Knaddison, Nathaniel Catchpole, Daniel Kudwien, Michelle Cox, Kieran Lal, Steven Peck, Gerhard Killesreiter, Narayan Newton and I could go on but I don't have all day to write this who are contributing a great deal of their time and energy into Drupal and their contributions are vital for the functioning of this ecosystem.

I'm honored to receive this award, but it's very important to remember that there isn't, really, a single Most Valuable Person in our community, but there are a lot of very valuable people in this community. I thank everyone who voted for me, and I thank everyone in the community who have made the way of life I currently lead even possible. Drupal is built upon the strength of this community, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

I don't normally make political statements on this blog, but this issue is so important I feel like I should.