Denuo - denuology.com

President Obama yesterday held a fairly remarkable town-hall style meeting yesterday called Open for Questions. Anyone could go to the site and either suggest a question and/or vote on which questions the president should answer. For the YouTube debates that took place during the election, it seemed fairly random which questions were selected for answering. But this time around, it appears the president really did tackle those with the most votes, submitting to the will of the people. That likely seemed like a problem-free strategy until the administration realized that the top question across a third of the categories was about legalizing marijuana.

Generally, Hollywood is one of the first to latch onto whatever the latest trend becomes in marketing and technology. Trailers helped pave the way for online video. Studios were amongst the first to push the boundaries of mobile. TV shows embraced online communities and blogs well before most. But they seem to be lagging in one crucial new trend – transparency. Big brands have slowly started to open up. Even the new government is on board. But Tinseltown seems more reluctant than anyone to embrace the idea beyond a few behind the scenes features and a gag reel on the DVD.

My twenty-year high school reunion is this year (I know, surprise surprise, you thought I looked 26). I’m not looking forward to it as much as I thought I would, but not for the reasons you’re thinking. I’m not running from an awkward encounter with my Homecoming date. I haven’t assembled a crime record and most, if not all, my acne is gone (depending on the day). No, I’m just not as excited because the element of surprise is gone. The culprit? Facebook. Facebook has ruined my high-school reunion.

The last two weeks of December are my favorite time of year but not because of the Christmas spirit and goodwill and peace towards all. It’s because I love lists. Kind of to the point of obsession. Gripe all you want about the cheapening of journalism…tell me there’s a list inside a magazine featuring the Top 10 or 40 of something and I’m probably breaking out my wallet. Why? Lists are fun. They instantly provide food for thought in the most simple design interface of all: a column of content in ranked order.

We’ll start Top 5 with John Durbin. He asked Dan Buczaczer his Top 5 Albums of 1998: