Sun Microsystems, Inc. is very grateful for its very large Community (currently estimated at 6 million users). The company and the MySQL Community have a synergetic relationship. In a nutshell, the commercial activities of the company of course pay for the continued development of the software, and the community, having access to the latest features in the MySQL software, provides vital feedback and bug reports.
But the MySQL Community is much more! Think for instance of the many applications that can use MySQL, tools for MySQL, and books and articles about MySQL. The diversity is amazing. And many in the MySQL Community spend their own time helping their fellow users on mailing lists, forums or IRC, talk about MySQL at conferences, and so on. So perhaps a good one-line description of a MySQL Community member would be "someone who does work on MySQL related things ``beyond the call of duty''.
With the MySQL Guilds, we want to give some extra public credit to some of these exceptional MySQL Community members. There are four MySQL Guilds, and someone can be a member of more than one Guild if their skills and activities warrant this.
We envisage that the MySQL Guilds are more than simply an honors roll. Say someone organizes a conference, and is looking for some excellent speakers on MySQL. Where better to look than here? We will also enhance the information presented here, so you can learn more about all these excellent people, who they are and what they do.
People are asked to join (for a one-year period), based on merit. We identify individuals in various places, and you can nominate! What do people need to do to stay on the Guilds? Keep doing what they're doing! So the following list is updated regularly.
Naturally, even if you are not listed here, your own activities in the MySQL Community are also valuable. Thanks very much. And someone may nominate you!
The MySQL Community mailing list is available for general discussion of MySQL Community issues.