Introducing the Zephyr Community Awards: Celebrating 10 Years of Contribution

This year marks the Zephyr Project’s 10th anniversary – a decade of open source innovation in embedded systems and IoT, built entirely on the work of our community. To celebrate this milestone, we’re excited to launch the Zephyr Community Awards, a new recognition program honoring the contributors, documentarians, advocates, and behind-the-scenes heroes who have made the Zephyr ecosystem what it is today.

Awards will be presented live at the Zephyr Developer Summit, October 7–9, 2026, in Prague, Czech Republic, making this one of the most memorable moments of our anniversary year.

Our Values

The Zephyr Community Awards are grounded in the same values that have guided the project for ten years:

• Openness: transparent, inclusive, and welcoming to all contributors
• Technical Excellence: high standards for code, documentation, and collaboration
• Community First: prioritizing the health and sustainability of the ecosystem
• Recognition Across Roles: honoring the full spectrum of contribution, from commits to community-building

Zephyr wouldn’t exist without the people who show up, again and again, in ways big and small. This program is our way of saying thank you.

The Six Award Categories

We’ll be presenting six awards this year, each recognizing a distinct and essential form of contribution:

🏆 Distinguished Achievement Award: For an individual whose sustained, exceptional contributions have fundamentally shaped the Zephyr Project through technical excellence, leadership, and lasting impact.

💻 Top Committer: Honoring outstanding technical excellence through code contributions to the Zephyr codebase and hosted projects.

📝 Documentarian: Celebrating excellence in documentation — the work that lowers barriers, helps new contributors get started, and makes Zephyr’s knowledge accessible to all.

🪓 Workhorse Award: For the community member who works tirelessly behind the scenes — doing the essential, often thankless work that keeps the Zephyr ecosystem running smoothly.

📣 Ecosystem Amplifier Award: Recognizing an individual or team that has dramatically advanced Zephyr’s visibility, messaging, and presence in the broader embedded and open source ecosystem.

🏷️ Technical Visionary Award (TSC Honor): Presented by the Zephyr Technical Steering Committee (TSC) to the person who has done the most to advance Zephyr’s technical governance and working groups.

Who Can Be Nominated

• Any active member of the Zephyr Project community
• Zephyr TSC members, maintainers, and contributors
• Zephyr member organization representatives
• Any Zephyr speakers from past events, meetups, Tech Talks, or podcasts

Nominees must have made meaningful contributions to Zephyr during the award period (the past 10 years) and must be individuals, not organizations. TSC members are eligible for all award categories. Please note: current Zephyr staff members cannot be nominated.

How to Nominate

The Zephyr Community Awards are community-driven – any member of the Zephyr community can nominate another member. All nominations are reviewed by the Awards Selection Committee, which will be selected by the project team. 

Each nomination should include:

1. Your name, affiliation, and email address
2. The nominee’s name, affiliation, email address, GitHub handle, and LinkedIn
3. The award category you’re nominating them for
4. A written statement (150–500 words) describing the nominee’s contributions and why they deserve this award
5. 5–8 supporting links (pull requests, documentation, event recordings, blog posts, etc.)

Nomination tip: Strong nominations are specific. Rather than general praise, highlight concrete contributions — a PR that fixed a critical issue, documentation that measurably improved onboarding, participation in an event that brought in new contributors, or behind-the-scenes work that kept the project running. Specificity is persuasive.

Key Dates

Nominations close September 1, 2026 – mark your calendars, because late submissions won’t be considered.

What Winners Receive

• Official recognition from the Zephyr Project
• A featured announcement across our social channels and website
• A highlight in our 10-Year Anniversary celebration materials
• A digital badge for profiles and email signatures
• Their award presented live at the Zephyr Developer Summit in Prague

Questions?

Reach out to the awards team at [email protected].

Ten years in, Zephyr is what it is because of the people who build it, document it, champion it, and keep it running. Let’s take this anniversary as a chance to say thank you – nominate someone today.