We are pleased to announce that Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto, the creator of Ruby and Heroku's Chief Ruby Architect, has received the 2011 annual Advancement of Free Software Award. Presented by Richard Stallman and on behalf of the Free Software Foundation, the award is given each year to those who have greatly contributed to the freedom of software.
This is great news for Matz, who has dedicated over 20 years to the development of free software including the creation of the Ruby programming language. While writing Ruby he chose to focus on programmer happiness and productivity, and the result has been extraordinary. The popularity of the language, helped in part by the Rails framework, has encouraged a new generation of free software advocates who together have released more than 36,000 freely downloadable Ruby libraries known as Gems.
This award is also a huge win for Ruby. It's a recognition of Ruby's importance, will bring more people into the community, and encourages more developers to share their work. If you'd like to contribute to Ruby, visit the ruby core page where you can learn how to submit a patch or file a bug report.
We're very proud of the Ruby community as a whole, and for Matz and all of his accomplishments. So please join us today, along with the Free Software Foundation, in thanking him for all of his hard work.