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As I think about the award idea more, I still don't really like it. (Sorry Eric!). Some comments at http://bibwild.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/why-i-dont-like-the-code4lib-code-award-idea/ With a shorter version below (thanks Jodi). The award will inevitably be seen as an endorsement of the awarded project by ‘Code4Lib.’ While some supporters say this is not the intention, I’ve also seen supporters say the reason they want the Code4Lib name on it is so the award will have more prestige. To me, this implies that an implied endorsement in fact is part of the idea: What else would this prestige be for? But whether it’s intentional or not, it’s inevitable. The Code4Lib community has indeed garnered a fair amount of prestige lately, including by people who don’t really understand the informal and non-official nature of Code4Lib. I’ve seen Code4Lib erroneously referred to as an ‘organization’ several times. Much of this audience will see such an award as an endorsement of the project awarded, by the prestigious ‘Code4Lib’. But I don’t think Code4Lib actually has the capacity to accurately and useful determine value of an open source project. Libraries need to learn how to evaluate open source projects on their own, for their own circumstances and needs. Libraries, always on the look-out for shortcuts, are going to be really tempted to use a Code4Lib award as a shortcut to their own investigation. If it’s awarded by Code4Lib, it must be good. I worry about anything that discourages libraries from the hard work of developing their own capacity to evaluate projects; and I also worry about such an implied endorsement actually steering them wrong because I don’t think we have the capacity to reliably make such universally applicable evaluations as a community. Sure, the award won’t be intended as such, but it will be read as such. I would actually love to see a regular “notable project review” feature in the Code4Lib Journal, perhaps in every issue. This could cover only articles that the reviewers thought were exceptionally good, or it could cover any project of note. And reviews would have particular reviewer’s bylines attached, making it clear who was doing the evaluation, and discouraging the reader from thinking it’s the “Code4Lib community”, which isn’t capable of speaking with one voice anyway (nor do we desire it to). If the goal of the idea is to inject some money into library-domain open source software development, than rather than an award with compenstaion, I think the money could more effectively be spent funding an internship or some kind. Perhaps something like Google Summer of Code. Give a stipend to some library student (or currently un- or under-employed Code4Libber, but I like the idea of getting library students involved as bonus) to work on a Code4Lib community project. Perhaps the community could vote on which project(s) were eligible for such an internship, and then people could apply expressing their interests, and a smaller committee would actually match an intern with a project.