This is more than a little overwhelming for us, but we’ve just been notified that the Brooklyn Museum has won a 2008 Forrester Groundswell Award in the Social Impact category. I won’t go into how great the book is—Nina has done a great job of that already, but it is more than cool to be recognized in this way by the very people who wrote the textbook of good example. If you haven’t already, go grab a copy and you’ll see why this is so insanely awesome. The competition this year was crazy—151 entries (finalists here) and as a non-profit, we couldn’t be more proud to be among the winners. Here’s what the judges had to say:

Social Impact

Brooklyn Museum for all three entries:

* ArtShare Facebook App
* Brooklyn Museum’s Click Exhibition
* Brooklyn Museum Posse

“Among many companies using social technologies for the greater good, we recognized a little museum in New York, the Brooklyn Museum. Why? Because of the multiple ways they have used social technologies to put their visitors in charge. They created a Facebook application in which 2,000 people identified and shared the bits of art in the museum that they liked best. They created a community curated exhibit – 3,000 people chose which art pieces to put on display, based on a total of 400,000 votes. And the museum has put the whole collection online, where the community tags it with identifying terms, allowing you to see pieces of art similar to the ones you like, or on specific topics. ”

Thank you to everyone around here who makes these initiatives possible—trust me, it would be hard to name almost everyone in the Brooklyn Museum—just know this very much a group effort around here and, by group, I mean every department. Thank you Forrester peeps and thanks to everyone out there who has been installing our Facebook app, participating in Click! and becoming a member of the Posse to work with our Collection online—most of all, it has been amazing to see what you’ve been bringing to these projects.