The deadline for the 2017 edition of the Japan-based Fukuoka Ruby Award is December 27th and is open to any project that uses Ruby and was developed or completed within the last year. The Grand Prize is 1 Million Yen, currently worth less than $10,000, but the main attraction is that Matz himself in on the judging panel.

This international competition was set up in 2009 to promote Ruby, raise public awareness of the growing software industry in Fukuoka, and expand the use of Ruby to new regions and industries around the world. From the outset the initiative has involved the creator of the Ruby language, Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto. However the contest's attempt to be global has suffered from the language barrier of promoting itself in Japanese.

To attract more US entrants the 2012 contest had a qualifying round in Silicon valley. This was won by Banjo, which at the time was a news app built from social media feeds which has subsequently developed into what is described as a "event-detection engine". Although Banjo didn't win the 1 Million Yen prize in 2012, the Yukihiro Matsumoto Ruby Leadership Award that year went to VMware for CloudFoundry and several other awards went to USA and UK companies.

In 2012 the contest had 82 entries from 9 countries. The next year was the peak in terms if entries, with 89  from 11 countries. After that entries declined with 54 from 9 countries in 2015 and 48 from 4 countries in 2015 and its website doesn't mention a 2016 contest.

For 2017 there are several awards and the ones open to non-local contestants are:

• Grand Prize (One Award): Certificate of Commendation, Trophy, and 1 million yen.
  
  
• Outstanding Performance Awards (Multiple Awards): Certificate of Commendation, Trophy, and 100,000 yen.
  
  
• Special Awards (Multiple Awards): Certificate of Commendation
  
  
• Special Company Awards including ones supported  byAWS and Salesforce

To enter all you need do in the first instance is to fill in a downloadable form. This extract from the rules indicates what is expected for the 2017 contest, which will be judged at a conference held in Fukuoka in March. 

Eligible projects include systems, business models, or activities that utilize the features of the Ruby programming language. Entries must have been developed or completed within the past 1 year. Projects that 1) help increase the popularity or growth of Ruby, 2) impact society in a big way, or 3) are widely used, are preferred. Entries may incorporate languages other than Ruby. Exclusive development in Ruby is NOT required. Both free and commercial projects will be considered, but a URL and access must be provided so that the selection committee can view the system. (Entries describing activities do not need to designate a URL.) Entries that describe systems, business models, or activities considered by the selection committee to be inappropriate or offensive to the public will not be accepted.

1. Preliminary Evaluation shall be based on the application documents, attachments, and a preview of the system via the Internet.
2. Final Selection shall be based on presentations in Fukuoka, Japan conducted by applicants who have successfully passed the Preliminary Evaluation. If successful applicants are unable to present in person, the presentation documents may be submitted in lieu. Travel to Fukuoka for the Final Selection process and related expenses are the responsibility of the applicant.

 The latest announcement from Fukuoka Ruby on the Ruby-lang website exhorts more entries with:

“Matz will be testing and reviewing your source code thoroughly, so it’s very meaningful to apply! The competition is free to enter.”

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