I can't recall a year where the technological center of gravity was more personal-facing -- and less business-oriented -- than 2008. Sure, virtualization, server consolidation, SaaS, and enhanced mobility emerged as offering true enterprise value. Yet many of us spent our days messing around with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, all the while convincing ourselves that we were doing it out of a selfless desire to benefit our employers!I admit I engaged in some of that "me" stuff, too. Which is not to say that there isn't real business value to be extracted from social networking. Indeed there is, especially when you're talking about subjective and hard-to-measure qualities like brand-building and online presence.

OK, enough with the set up already. When I look back at the stuff I've worked on in 2008, I'm surprised to find I've covered a heck of a lot of ground. Part of this is that fact that Internet time is like dog years -- each week is equivalent to a month in the old days; boy, it's tiring. Mainly, though, there was lot of interesting stuff in 2008 which merited attention, both because of its intrinsic value and because of the potential career advantages which can accrue by keeping on the cutting edge. (Not to mention, the sagging economy is inspiring everyone who's gainfully employed to work harder.)

Here now (finally) is my list of top nine personal tech accomplishments for 2008: