The winners of the Linden Lab Innovation Awards ('The Hippos') were announced by Rob Linden (aka Rob Lanphier) at this year's SLCC. Rob Linden's award announcement is reproduced on the Linden blog, introduced by Liana Linden.

While not everyone's going to ultimately agree with the winners, because everyone doubtless has their own perspectives on who is most deserving in each field, take a moment to consider the efforts of each of these people towards your Second Life experience.

The Linden Lab Innovation Awards for open source development (nicknamed the Hippo Awards, internally) will be announced this Saturday during the tech panel at SLCC, 8AM SLT (US Pacific) / 10AM CDT.

Rob Linden will be announcing the awards in person at SLCC. To hear him in-world, tune into the "social track" audio stream provided by SLCC. See the in-world SLCC info page for details.

Liana Linden will be organizing a gathering of award nominees inworld, at which Cory Linden will be speaking. To wangle a guest invitation for this gathering should contact Liana Linden before Friday morning.

Linden Lab announces its 2007 Innovation Awards, to acknowledge the work of open source contributors. Categories include Contributor of the Year, Best Contribution, Best Feature, Best Bug Hunter, Best Community Organizer.

Votes are being taken through JIRA, and Lindens and their family are not eligible. The full announcement is reproduced below the fold.