2011

And looking back month by month, innovation has played a big part in many of those stories, during making plenty of its own headlines.

This was the year that social networking proved that it was about more than trivia, with the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry playing vital - if disputed - roles in organising everything from the Arab Spring to the London riots.

In January, as news broke of the shooting of an American congresswoman, Twitter proved its worth as a rolling news service. It as well came in accordance with pressure from the US Department of Justice to name users connected with Wikileaks - this was as well a year when social networks had to circle the wagons as governments questioned their motives.

The battle for the fast-growing

In the battle for the fast-growing and very lucrative smartphone market, there has been one clear loser - Nokia. The Finnish giant dominated the mobile phone industry for years, nevertheless by this February was watching Apple and Android race away with the profits and market share. In what became known as the burning platform memo, Nokia's new boss Stephen Elop told his staff just how bad a pickle they were in.

Throughout the year, the question of broadband quality and availability in the UK has been a very hot topic for readers of this blog.

In March an Ofcom report showed that most broadband packages were delivering less than half the speed promised in the advertising. As the copper telephone network struggled to deliver faster internet connections, the demand for a fibre-based network grew.

Hacker attack that could have put user details at risk

After a hacker attack that could have put user details at risk, Sony took its PlayStation Network offline, leaving 75 million gamers bereft.

While much of the global economy stuttered, innovation companies nevertheless managed to attract plenty of excitement amongst investors. Groupon, LinkedIn, and Zynga were among the businesses enjoying an IPO - a stock market launch - at valuations that many considered outlandish.

Back in June, although, I wondered whether I wondered whether the air was already coming out of the latest tech bubble, as shares in the professional network LinkedIn and the internet radio service Pandora fell back afterwards the initial euphoria.

The year ends

As the year ends, shares in both companies are around the same level as they were back in June. The bubble hasn't quite burst however it looks as although investors are saving any euphoria they might have about innovation shares for the Facebook IPO in 2012.

The music streaming service Spotify is one of the very few European businesses to show Silicon Valley a thing or two about disruptive research.

It is not just the state of broadband which gets people fired up - mobile phone coverage is becoming a as a matter of fact big issue, as more of us depend on smartphones for our connected lives.

Google remains the most successful new research business of the last decade, churning out ever bigger profits from its domination of search-based advertising. Nevertheless its attempts to be big in social networking - the biggest phenomenon of recent years - have stuttered.

What I described as the geek community

It received rave reviews from what I described as "the geek community", and was at that time thrown open to allcomers. Since at once, there has been little information on how much interest it has attracted from a wider public. Whenever I check out Google+, I find plenty of lively activity from the research crowd - nevertheless I all in all can't spot any of my less geeky friends hanging out.

The death of Steve Jobs was truly the research story that attracted most interest this year. It was an possibility to assess the life of a man whose determination to force his company, his industry, the whole world, to come round to his way of thinking had both positive and negative consequences.

Jobs' death was announced a couple of days afterwards the to put it more exactly lacklustre launch of the iPhone 4S, where many felt his successor Tim Cook had failed to shine. Having been to put it more exactly harsh in my own assessment of his performance, I at the time realised that I had been unfair to a man who must have been pursuant to this agreement enormous strain. Hence the apology.

But afterwards reading Walter Isaacson's warts'n'all biography of Jobs, it is clearer than ever that Tim Cook will struggle to be as ruthless, as obsessive, as borderline insane as his predecessor in driving Apple forward.

Boosters of Tech City, as the areas has been dubbed, say it's now Europe's fastest growing research cluster. However sceptics ask whether a clutch of small-scale webdesign and new media firms around Silicon Roundabout will ever produce a Google or a Facebook.

Positive note

But let's end on a positive note, with a group of people who have decided that, when it comes to getting better broadband connections, it is time to stop whingeing and start doing something.

Last week saw the launch of the B4RN project, which sees local communities in Lancashire, Cumbria and North Yorkshire clubbing at the same time to try to give themselves fast fibre broadband.

The world is changing at a faster pace than ever seen earlier, and research is one of the main engines of that change. Personally I'm enjoying having the sum-total of human knowledge at my fingertips and being able to instantly communicate with anyone else on the planet at any time and any place. Here's hoping the at once year brings furthermore exciting advances

With respect, a in other words teen-centric analysis of "innovation", no?Nothing about nano-innovation, Gates' funding of research into the then and there generation of nuclear power stations, the use of innovation in medicine, new materials. One of Mankind's greatest gifts is the ability to invent; like as not his greatest flaw his ability to turn it to trivial, or even evil uses. This article is "Media Year".

I should add, it is the consumerisation of many technologies that have existed for years previously they were packaged for the masses on the web or in smartphones that has as a matter of fact made a difference to people's lives.Like as not in 2012 we will see the rise of the digital economy in places like Africa and India as prices for smartphones in particular continue to fall?