Here’s a great idea: reward people for the great work they’re doing on open source projects. From http://rit.mellon.org/awards/:
The Program in Research in Information Technology of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation invites nominations for the 2006 Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration (MATC). In support of the Program’s mission to encourage collaborative, open source software development within traditional Mellon constituencies, these awards—to be given for the first time in 2006—will recognize not-for-profit organizations that are making substantial contributions of their own resources toward the development of open source software and the fostering of collaborative communities to sustain open source development.
The awards will provide the recipients with opportunities to strengthen their commitment to inter-organizational collaboration and open source software development. Awards will be given at two levels: $25,000 awards to recognize important organizational contributions to open source projects which currently or potentially provide significant benefits to at least one traditional Mellon constituency; and $100,000 awards to recognize highly significant contributions to open source projects offering larger benefits to more or larger constituencies. Multiple awards will be bestowed at each level, at the discretion of the Award Committee and the Trustees.
Self-nominations are accepted, as are multiple submissions for the same group in the context of their work on different projects. So go submit the name of some folks who are making a difference!