What information do you need for a nomination?

At a minimum, we need an institution and project name, along with contact information for at least one key individual at the institution and one key individual with the project. We use this information to obtain the additional information that we need directly from the nominees.

We also suggest that you compose a brief  (less than 500 words) statement discussing why you feel that the institution is qualified and why the project is significant enough to warrant a MATC award.

• Quantitative evidence is always helpful: if you know the number of installations or downloads for a project, tell us. Information on numbers of core contributors and the size of the community is also helpful.
  

• It is particularly important that you share with us information that it would be difficult for us to obtain otherwise; for example, one 2006 winner was selected in part because the nomination mentioned how much the institution had done for the nominated project without any outside support and with an extremely limited internal budget.
  
• Other useful information might include ways in which leadership contributions have had impacts that are not obvious in terms of the usual measures. Examples include situations in which institutions: took over leadership of a languishing project; worked to resolve conflicts that threatened the project's success; assumed lead responsibility for key project milestones; assumed responsibility for particularly thankless tasks; and so on.
  
• Remember that MATC awards are focused on the role of open source software in serving Mellon's key constituencies: higher education (and particularly the arts and humanities), museums, libraries, arts organizations, and nature conservation. Wherever possible, frame your discussion of the impacts of the nominee and the benefits of the project in terms of those constituencies. Discussions of how useful the software is to other constituencies (e.g., civic advocacy organizations, or K-12 education) will not help your nominee unless you also show that it makes a strong contribution to the key Mellon constituencies as well. If you can't speak to the role of the project in a Mellon constituency, try to find someone else who can, and ask him/her to add a comment to your nomination.