The Best of the Web awards are just now being announced at the Museums and the Web 2009 conference in Indianapolis! We posted here in February about the Flickr Commons–related nominations.

And now, among the Best of the Web are …

Best Online Community or Service:

• honorable mention: The Commons!
• honorable mention: Indicommons!
• Best Online Community: Brooklyn Museum Collection, Posse, and Tag! You’re It!

Best Exhibition:

• Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition (Brooklyn Museum)

Best Innovative or Experimental Site:

• honorable mention: Astronomy Photographer of the Year (plus complimentary digital astronomy services – National Maritime Museum)

Best Overall Website:

• The Brooklyn Museum!

See the full list of award winners here, and check back for more about the Museums and the Web conference!

Museums and the Web is an international conference for “Webmasters, educators, curators, librarians, designers, managers, directors, scholars, consultants, programmers, analysts, and developers from museums, galleries, libraries, science centers, and archives” and “the professionals, companies, foundations and governments that support them”. The conference has been held since 1997.

This year, we’re very proud that The Commons has been nominated for a Museums and the Web Best of the Web Award, in the Online Community or Service category. The Commons has been nominated for bringing “photography from the archives back to life, and promoting their creative re-use through ‘no known copyright restrictions’ statements.”

The Best of the Web Awards, recognizing achievement in heritage website design, will be presented at the annual conference in April 2009 in Indianapolis.

Two other nominees in the Best Online Community or Service category are close to our hearts. The Brooklyn Museum is nominated for its website, Community Posse, and tagging games.

And finally, here at Indicommons and in our Flickr group, we’re incredibly grateful for our own nomination in this category, by Fiona Romeo of the National Maritime Museum. It’s only because of Fiona and many people like her — people with a passion for the living past, ideas about how to keep it living, and the know-how to make those ideas real — that we, the members of Flickr, are here at all, playing in The Commons. Thank you!