Last summer, I set out to rethink the blog (by that I mean both this blog and the concept of the blog) and set up the Netlab Dispatches, a series of periodic e-mails that would push the meatier content on this site to readers who had chosen to subscribe. Although I've wound up posting on the site more regularly this year than I had for some time, the dispatches wound up left behind. What was supposed to be episodic instead proved to be spasmodic as I questioned just what was important enough to be sent out to my readership. 

With the end of the year upon us, I thought that I should look back to see what the most widely-read articles and blog entries on varnelis.net in 2007 were. In doing so, I realized this would make a good entry point back into the dispatches. So, in terms of the most readership, here are the top ten. I hope to have an opportunity to compile the most significant posts—as I see them—soon.  

1. That Wasn't Very Del.Icio.us 

My tale of Web 2.0 woe as I lost all of my social bookmarks and there was no way to retrieve them. Not much theory here, but real life horror that reminds us of the fragility of network culture. 

2. Prada and the Pleasure Principle 

In which I look at OMA's Prada Beverly Hills, reflecting on the dangers and opportunities of the information age for architecture.

3. The Rise of Network Culture 

Probably my most important article on the varnelis.net to date, this is my effort to periodize contemporary culture. I've been surprised and delighted that many of my colleagues have responded so positively to it and am looking forward to seeing it in print as part of Networked Publics this fall. More in this vein along the way.

4. An Anti-Pragmatic Manifesto 

Guest blogger Mark Jarzombek's incisive piece on the state of architecture theory attracted the most well-thought out comments I've had so far. This reminds me that I owe Mark a response on the role of history today.

5. Transparency, Literal or Embedded? 

I examine the relationship between the lack of privacy in network culture and architecture.  

6. Goodbye Supermodernism 

In this article I look at the changes in our sense of place since Marc Augé's Non-Places and Hans Ibelings' Supermodernism.

7. Blog-Loser 

In which I reflect on my own irrelevance to corporate drones, but more importantly, on the future of blogging. Watch this blog for more on this in the next week. 

8. Suburbs vs. Cities 

On the changing relationship between suburbs and cities today. Things may not be what they seem, especially to people who live in the entity formerly known as the city.

9. Network Culture and Periodization 

This reflection on how we think about time is not included in the final version of the Network Culture article due to a few reader's comments that it was too esoteric. Not to a historian! And, I'm delighted to see, not to my readership either.

10. The Return of Big Computing

The first of the dispatches, this article explores the return of the big computing paradigm. Together with the disappearance of privacy, this is one of the biggest emerging trends this year. 

That concludes this list, but sets up for a post coming later in the week that will look at the key issues for 2007.