OpenStreetMap
I grant the lolcat of awesomeness to Pascal Neis
Pascal has been cranking out an array of nifty little tools which make being an OSM contributor more fun: "How did you contribute?", "OSM fight", "Your OSM heatmap". All fairly simple, but quite nifty in the way they are presented. Also check out his disconnected villages map, and he is one of the brains behind the Open Source Routing Machine.
As well as being a prolific technical developer he's also a great communicator. His blog explains his creations, but also is stuffed full of fascinating analysis of OpenStreetMap growth. All of this is awesome enough to deserve recognition, but additionally Pascal is instrumental in creating the weekly OSM summaries. We also have Jonas & Dennis to thank for this. Since November these blog posts to opengeodata.org have given a round-up of OpenStreetMap news items which I personally find extremely useful, but I also think it's an important way to help newcomers get their heads around OpenStreetMap (I believe they're actually incubated in German as the "Wochennotiz" on blog.openstreetmap.de)
Keep up the awesomeness Pascal!
One more piece of awesomeness I didn't mention: When is your OpenStreetMap birthday? (explained here) Which he has created to commemorate...
The OpenStreetMap 7th Anniversary
It's kind of a floating date around August some time, but approximately 7 years ago the OpenStreetMap project was born! Help us celebrate this all around the word. If there's isn't a party happening in your city... get together with you fellow OSMers, and make it happen! This Saturday (See above link)
We shall be partying in London. I've set it up to be at the Monkey Puzzle pub, which might seem unimaginative, but it occurs to me that we've not been there during the summer. They have quite a big garden and I think (I dare to hope) there might be a BBQ happening!
If you've ever seen London events and pondered making the journey to join us, do it for this one! If you need it, Londoners can probably help with accommodation. Why not make a weekend of it!
Discussion
Comment from Pieren on 18 August 2011 at 11:24
Harry, you should receive a 2nd "Lolcat of awesomeness" for your DiaryGnome activities. Slowly but surely, you are building a tour guide of the best bars and pubs in London ;)
Comment from Harry Wood on 18 August 2011 at 13:22
That's true. I've become more of a diarygnome than a wikignome of late. My diary is a tour guide to London's best pubs which meet certain criteria
Comment from !i! on 18 August 2011 at 18:27
Great jobs Pascal :D
Comment from c2r on 18 August 2011 at 22:50
I'd love to come (as I'm a long time contributor but know only the people I've introduced to the project), but I'm going to be at V... so perhaps next time! (o: