In 2021, we launched the Vaadin Community Award (VCA) program to recognize our community members who have demonstrated an exceptional track record of community participation. The support of our community is what drives us forward as an open-source platform. We love to see what our community members get up to during the year, whether it be the projects they’re building, talks they host at conferences, or even just providing us with feedback so that we can continuously improve our platform. Without further ado…
...Let's meet the 2022 VCA winners!
A big congratulations to the winners this year! We appreciate all of your hard work and contributions to the awesome Vaadin community.
Simon Martinelli
Simon Martinelli is probably among the most well-known names in the Vaadin community—and for a good reason! He’s an active Vaadin advocate, speaking at conferences and sharing valuable Vaadin and Hilla-related content online. Simon started his software development career 27 years ago as a Cobol developer on an IBM mainframe before switching to Java. He works as an architect, full-stack developer, and coach for clients from various industries. We’re honored to nominate him as a Vaadin Community Award winner for the second year running!
Meet Simon Martinelli ->
Christian Knoop
You might recognize Christian Knoop better by his nickname "Knoobie" on our Discord server and GitHub. He is always helping out other community members on StackOverflow and Discord, and we think he might know our GitHub better than anyone else. Knoobie is a Software Engineer from Germany working at DVZ M-V GmbH — the IT service provider for the state administration of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The company develops web applications for public authorities ranging from municipalities to agencies of the German federal government.
Josiah Haswell
With a background in compilers and distributed systems, Josiah is the CTO of Sunshower.io – a low-code deployment and infrastructure cost and configuration optimization product. Josiah has created an impressive library of open-source components, and utilities for Vaadin called Aire UX. In addition, he consistently takes part in discussions on Discord and shares valuable content related to Vaadin on social media.
Meet Josiah Haswell ->
Ryan Pang
Ryan graduated from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2006 and started his Java journey. He has been working as a software developer for more than 16 years, providing software solutions for the government, insurance companies, fin-tech companies, and banks. Also, Ryan is the owner of WontLost Ltd, providing web application consultancy and development. He has been active in creating several helpful add-ons for the Vaadin directory.
Meet Ryan Pang ->
How to become the next VCA winner?
Just participate! The VCA is given to members that actively lead online and local Vaadin communities. There are plenty of ways to participate and get creative. For example, some ways you can give back to the community include:
- Report issues on GitHub or provide useful information and feedback on existing issues. If an issue is difficult to reproduce and the report doesn't include it already, provide examples, screenshots, or logs.
- Speak at conferences, Java User Groups, or at your company. Share the power of Vaadin with others and post screenshots or photos of the presentation on social media, in your personal blog, or in another online publication. Don't hesitate to tag the Vaadin accounts so we can re-share your posts. We are always happy to hear about what developers are doing with Vaadin!
- Create and maintain popular Vaadin Directory add-ons
- Publish articles and videos centered on Vaadin features and integrations with other technologies
- Share tips or things you learn about Vaadin as you work with it. Other developers might find what you share useful, or they may share even more things you didn't know!
- Engage in social media, Discord, and Stack Overflow conversations
- Consistently and passionately help other members of the Vaadin Community