Decade in Review: the 25 Most Important Tech Moments of 2000 - 2010

Posted 12/28/2010 at 2:29pm | by Loyd Case

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A lot can happen in ten years.

When we sat down to try to list the 25 most important tech events of the decade, we began by listing, well, events. And it’s true that certain key events shaped the decade in tech. But it’s a moving target; there are also movements and trends that change how we view and use technology over the years.

So instead of trying to create list of discrete events, I’ve mixed them all up. Some relate to specific companies, some point to general trends and a few… well, a few are just odd quirks of our own.

The truth is that, while we have these ordered based on our own notions of relative importance (and a trend you might notice), these are all seminal moments, each in their own way. What might be the most important to us might be the least for you.

So contemplate our list, and then let us know yours.

Also, in case you missed our other coverage, please make sure you see our other year-end stories, including: 13 Biggest Tech Blunders of the Decade.

Let’s get into it.

25. We are All Authors

Whether it’s Facebook, blogs, online photo sharing, Wikis or any of a host of related activities, the ubiquity of broadband connections throughout the world has enabled a vast array of people – talented, untalented and in-between – to express themselves. There’s always someone in the world who knows more than you or I about a specific topic, and being able to tap into that vast knowledge base enriches all of us.

Also, everyone can create digital media. We all have cameras, camcorders and digital audio recorders, even if it’s just our cell phones. User-created content is everywhere, and it’s not just text. Trying to figure out what content is good? Now that’s a different story.

24. Curated versus open content

So we’re all creating content. That’s great, but who decides what content is great and what’s not? Or, on a more sinister note, who decides what’s appropriate or what’s not.

When we entered the 21st century ten years ago, there was a great hope among the Technorati that the Internet would become the great, unfettered open world of information, with the best and most useful info bubbling up to the top based largely on its own. Know-it-all editors would be banished forever.

Uh-huh. Sure.

Some of that has happened, to be sure. But whenever there’s a lack of control, someone wants to step in and impose it. Whether it’s Apple, deciding what’s appropriate for the App Store, the Great Firewall of China, DMCA or a host of seemingly unrelated organizations, commercial or public, control is being imposed. And freedoms are being restricted.

Like the physical world, though, for every reaction, there’s an opposite reaction, as we’ve seen with Wikileaks.

23. The rise of social networking

You can find me on Twitter as loydcase. Or on Facebook. Or on Quora or on… well, you get the picture. A vast array of people are now connected across a variety of social media platforms. At the same time, social media capabilities are steadily being integrated into more traditional applications, whether its gaming, photography or even our work lives.

Social media enables us to connect or re-connect with long-lost friends, or stay in touch with people we’ll never, ever meet in person. It also enables us to throw out questions we have to a wider, often more knowledgeable audience, or help out by answering those questions. And remember the problem of trying to figure out what user-generated content is actually good? Social media is actually pretty effective at helping the good stuff bubble up to the top.

Love it or hate it, social media will become increasingly more pervasive as time goes. We’ll all have to learn to either manage our privacy well, or become comfortable with every nuance of our lives being very public.

22. Everything is a Game

Checked into Foursquare today? Lined up another Xbox achievement? Played your Panera slot machine card?
The tenets of gaming are beginning to penetrate everyday life. We’re not entirely convinced that these are all good, however. After all, do we all want to live our lives in a world that’s a collection of giant Skinner boxes? Probably not.

On the other hand, we might see games that have the power to change the world, as World Without Oil tries to do, or see more game concepts get folded into training and education.

This much is clear, however: Play and play techniques that are built into the heart of modern board and electronic games will attract and shape a wide range of users. How that capability is implemented determines whether gaming will, in the long term, be a force for positive change or not.

21. DIY Culture

The broad reach of the Internet, the nature of internet communities and the ease of access to a wide range of digital tools means we’re seeing more people roll their own products. Even the open source movement has its roots in DIY culture, with groups of developers creating their own OS distributions. Gaming has seen a vast array of indie developers and even complex activities like launching a camera into space have become DIY activities.

DIY has become a huge phenomenon, spawning creations like the gaming phenomenon Minecraft or the Steampunk video series Riese: Kingdom Falling. So whether you simply build your own PC or create something more complex, you’re part of a broader movement.

20. The rise of broadband

Underlying the first three trends is the increasing ubiquity of broadband. A decade ago, cable modems were relatively new. Rates ran around $90 a month for a 2 megabit connection. Now the same fee will get you an unlimited 40 megabits down, and 8 megabits upstream.

Broadband isn’t everywhere, and there are still a lot of people who don’t have it. But even people who may not have a fat pipe running into their homes may use it at school, the local coffee shop or on the train.

It’s broadband that enables us to share photos and video. It’s broadband that enables multiplayer gaming. In the next 10 years, broadband will supplant cable TV, movies, sports, and more.