Forrester has announced that it is intorducing an awards competition—the “Groundswell Awards”—to honor excellence in business application of “social technologies”—that is, blogs, wikis, widgets and the like. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based tech and market research company believes that social media needs an awards program of its own, just as the movies have Oscars and journalists have Pulitzers (and communicators have Gold Quills and Silver Anvils).

Problem is, social media do have awards of their own. The Society for New Communication Research has a perfectly good new media awards program. IABC has categories for blogs and podcasts in its Gold Quill competition. Do we really need another awards program? Forrester’s Josh Bernoff, VP/principal analysts, thinks so:

It’s time somebody recognized that social technologies—blogs, wikis, communities, widgets, and all the rest—aren’t just toys or conversation pieces. They’re also effective business tools. We will concentrate on business effectiveness and value—not just the prettiest blog or the most active wiki—to choose the winners.”

But the SNCR awards, the IABC awards, and others do focus on business value. I’m also wondering if podcasting is conspicuous by its absence from Forrester’s announcement.

The inaugural global awards will be announced at a Forrester consumer forum set for Chicago in October.