Because I am the sentimental type, I figured a look back at 2008 was in order. First off, I just celebrated:
My 8th Anniversary at Reed Business Information!
It’s been a tremendous ride so far, thanks to all of the weird, cool, creative, and giving folks I get to work with.
In 2008, I put out 52 editions of my newsletter (sign up in the upper right corner of the danblank.com homepage), covering a range of topics. Some of my favorites:
- What we can learn from LEGO.
 - The value of simplicity.
 - The benefit of stepping outside of your comfort zone.
 - The difference between an audience and a community.
 - How performance measurement can move your business forward.
 - How bloggers continue to push boundaries.
 - Why smiles are an inherent part of what we do.
 - Ideas for how to leverage event coverage on the web.
 - Ways that the mobile web is shifting our culture and communication.
 - A look back at the incredible history of who RBI is.
 - Thoughts on utility and elegance in product design.
 - The birth of new ideas.
 - How editors are rethinking online editorial strategy.
 - And why, despite the fact that the sky is falling, we are all going to be just fine.
 
But what fascinated me most this year was Facebook. I wrote two posts on the topic:
And I continue to be blown away by the ways in which Facebook has made my life more meaningful.
A very special thanks to Control Engineering’s Peter Welander, who contributed a phenomenal series on audio and video recording for the web.
Have a great New Year’s everyone – thank you again for making 2008 so much fun – looking forward to 2009.

