2000s: Encyclopedia II - 2000s - Events and trends

2000s - Events and trends

2000s - Technology

• A huge jump in broadband internet usage, from 6% of U.S. internet users in June, 2000 to what one study predicts will be 62% by 2010.
• Boom in music downloading and the use of data compression to quickly transfer music over the Internet, with a corresponding rise of portable digital audio players typified by Apple Computer's iPod.
• Digital cameras become very popular due to rapid decreases in size and cost while photo resolution steadily increases. Sales of film reel cameras diminish greatly as a result.
• Google search engine increases trafficability of the internet and "to Google" becomes a verb.
• Due to an increase in ability to store data, USB flash drives rapidly replace zip disks and 3.5-inch diskettes.
• Graphic cards become powerful enough to render nearly photo-realistic scenes in real time.
• Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 become the ubiquitous industry standard in personal computer software. Open source and free software continues to be a notable but minority interest, with versions of GNU/Linux gaining in popularity, as well as the Mozilla Firefox web browser.
• Liquid crystal displays begin displacing cathode ray tubes.
• Major advances in Hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Escape, and the Honda Insight.
• Greater interest in future energy development due to global warming and the potential exhaustion of crude oil.
• Blogs, portals, and wikis become common electronic dissemination methods for professionals, amateurs, and businesses to conduct knowledge management.
• Wikipedia began and grew rapidly, becoming the largest encyclopedia and most well known wiki in the world.
• DVDs replace VCR technology as the common standard at video stores.
• Due to the major success of broadband Internet connections, Voice over IP begins to gain popularity as a replacement for traditional telephone lines. Major telecommunications carriers begin converting their networks from TDM to VoIP.
• Wireless networks become commonplace in homes, education institutes and urban public spaces.
• LASIK eye surgery becomes popular as costs and potential risk decreases and results further improve.
• OLED (Organic light-emitting diode) technology revolutionizes display technology, making it possible to "print" screens on everyday objects.
• Home automation and home robotics become popular in North America; iRobot's "Roomba" is the most successful domestic robot and has sold 1.2 million units.
• GPS (Global Positioning System) becomes very popular especially in the tracking of items or people, and the use in cars.
• RFID (Radio Frequency ID) becomes widely used in retail giants such as Wal-Mart, as a way to track items and automate stocking and keeping track of items.
• DVRs (Digital Video Recorders), typified by TiVo, allow consumers to modify content they watch on TV, and to record TV programs and watch them later, leading to problems as consumers can fast-forward through commercials, making them useless.
• Self-serve kiosks become very widely available, used for all kinds of shopping, airplane boarding passes, hotel check-ins, fast food, and car rental.
• Internet usage surpasses TV viewing in 2004.
• Emerging use of robotics, especially telerobotics in medicine, particularly for surgery.
• Many more computers and other technologies incorporated into vehicles such as Xenon HID headlights, GPS, DVD players, self-diagnosing systems, advanced pre-collision safety systems, memory systems for car settings, back-up sensors and cameras, in-car media systems, MP3 player compatibility, USB drive compatibility, keyless start and entry, satellite radio, voice-activation, cellphone connectivity, adaptive headlights, HUD (Head-Up-Display), infrared cameras, and Onstar (on GM models).
• Peer-to-peer technology use: internet telephony (Skype), file-sharing.
• X-Box 360 and other next-generation systems revolutionize the videogame industry in 2005-2006 with photo-realistic graphics, a virtual online gaming world, and interoperability with other digital devices such as the iPod.
• The entire videogame industry's profits surpassed the movie industry's in 2004.
• After the bubble burst in 2001, another tech boom came around in the year 2005.
• Videophones are cheap and abundant, yet even by mid-decade, they had not recieved much attention.
• Most cellphone carriers offer video viewing services, internet services, and some offer full music downloads, such as Sprint in 2005.
• Digital music sales accounted for 6% of all music sales in 2005.
• Google releases a paid video download service, Google Video.
• Apple releases the iPod Video, paired with iTunes 6, with TV shows, and music videos.

2000s - Science

• The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission successfully reached the surface of Mars, and sent detailed data and images of the landscape there back to Earth.
• The Human Genome Project was completed. (2000)
• SpaceshipOne made the first privately-funded human spaceflight. (June 21, 2004)
• National Geographic and IBM fund a research project which traces every living human down to a "Scientific Adam". Human Genealogy Project. (See The Genographic Project)

2000s - War peace and politics

• Major controversy over U. S. presidential election (November 7-December 13, 2000)
• September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Center and Virginia's Pentagon killing almost 3000 people. A resultant change in stance towards international terrorism (See New Era and War on Terror) has ripple effects on the USA's foreign policy and military strategy.
• Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002 against Hugo Chávez
• U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to depose the Taliban regime in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks (September 18, 2001 – July 18, 2003).
• The Convention on the Future of Europe proposing first European constitution (i.e., of the EU). The Constitution is rejected by French and Dutch electorate in 2005 leading to political crisis in EU.
• East Timor gains official independence from Indonesia. (May 20, 2002)
• International Criminal Court established, used for judging war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide (July 1, 2002)
• American 2003 invasion of Iraq
• Darfur conflict in Sudan
• "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine leads to election of Viktor Yushchenko as President after initial election victory of incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is annulled due to vote-rigging
• Revolution in Kyrgyzstan overthrows government of President Askar Akayev
• Beslan school hostage crisis, in which multinational terrorists take a school in Beslan, Russia hostage. 344 people including children die in the ensuing crisis. (September 1, 2004)
• United States expands international influence, in particular in the Middle East The US also hold a number of war games pertaining to the Strait of Taiwan in preparation for a possible war with the People's Republic of China over a Taiwanese secession. China and Russia display a strategic relationships during a simulated "humanitarian" crisis in the same region during Peace Mission 2005.
• Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro and his conservative Liberal Democratic Party are re-elected in a landslide election in September 2005, mainly due to a booming Japanese economy and Junichiro's plans to privatise the Japanese postal service.
• In 2005, Early elections in Germany produce the first Grand Coalition for the country in almost forty years. After weeks of talks, the center-left Social Democrats and center-right Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union agree to let conservative Angela Merkel become chancellor. She is first chancellor to be from eastern Germany, as well as the country's first female chancellor.
• In America, as the Baby Boomers get set for retirement, Generation X begins to step up into political power in this decade and replace the Baby Boomers eventually. The first sign of this occuring would be the elected Illinois senator Obama. Generation X grew in pop culture with the 1980s and 1990s.
• The world's view of the United States drastically changes in the 2000s, mostly from the imperialistic views of the current US leaders in Washington. Other issues such as Hurricane Katrina, Government Telephone Spying, and the Iraq War have also caused many Americans to lose faith in George Bush's handlings. In 2006, some politians are preaching "impeachment" towards Bush.

2000s - Economics

• Globalization: Transnational companies become more pervasive, and anti-globalization protests occur frequently during meetings of IMF and WTO, especially in the early 2000s.
• The euro becomes legal tender in twelve European Union countries in 2002. It's the largest monetary union in history. The euro eases trade in the Eurozone.
• The NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange closed for six days after the September 11th, 2001 attacks the longest close since the Great Depression in 1929.
• Major downturn in the value of dot-com shares, with occasional exceptions (Google's IPO on August 13, 2004)
• The US dominance over the world economy continues, but economically rising nations like China, show signs of becoming contending world powers.
• Significant oil price rises. Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline opens on 25 May 2005, potentially removing the dependence of the United States and other Western nations on Middle Eastern oil.
• Enron and other major accounting and corporate governance scandals prompt reviews of corporate government legislation worldwide (eg Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
• The 1990s stock market boom ends in Mid-March to Early September of 2000-2001, due to 9/11 and the tech-bubble burst.
• Post-9/11 Recession from 2001-early 2003.
• Energy crisis in California and energy prices contributes to the economic downturn.
• Economy recovers in late 2003-2005 to steady growth as the unemployment rate drops to 5%, .4% above the rate seen in the booming heydays of the late '90s.
• Interest in technology companies remains steady, with IT spending fore-casted at 6% for 2006.
• Box-office returns fall drastically, as consumers turn instead to low-cost home theater systems and low-cost big screen HDTV's.
• Real estate market is seen as being the smaller version of the tech boom of the nineties, resulting in the highest ever housing market peak ever recorded in the US in July '05 .

2000s - Culture and religion

• The vast proliferation of information technology and digital media leads to many cultural paradigm shifts as people grapple with information overload. Generation Y (Millennials) are said to be adept at these technological developments.
• Reality television becomes a well-established sector of the television programming industry. Nightly news broadcasts continue to lose viewership to 24-hour internet news coverage. Changing television habits that involve increased use of the internet and the preponderance of TiVo make marketers rethink the paradigm of the 30-second TV ad. Viral marketing, and product placement within reality television shows and movies are some increasingly used alternatives. Spam is used as an alternative, irritating many.
• European society continues to become more secular; in contrast, religious groups increase their political influence in the United States and the Middle East.
• The divisive US presidential election of 2000 leads to commentators describing the country as split between Red States and Blue States.
• April 2, 2005: Pope John Paul II dies at age 84; succeeded by Pope Benedict XVI on April 24.
• Same-sex marriage becomes a major cultural issue in developed countries. In 2001, the Netherlands becomes the first country to allow gay couples to wed. This is followed by Belgium in 2003, and by Canada and Spain in 2005. In 2004, Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to permit same-sex marriage.

2000s - Other

• 2002–2003: SARS virus outbreak, most notably in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Toronto.
• February 1, 2003: The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry, killing all seven astronauts onboard, prompting investigation into NASA communication abilities and safety. Space shuttle flight resumes in late 2005, only to be suspended again.
• Major earthquake rocks the ancient city of Bam, in Iran. Cost over 50,000 lives.
• On December 26, 2004, a major earthquake and ensuing tsunami causes devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. As of January 2005 the death toll is estimated to be nearly 290,000, prompting the largest humanitarian response for a natural disaster in history.
• Methamphetamine use skyrockets while crime rates in the U.S. reach the lowest rate in 40 years as of 2005 and use of most other drugs drops.
• Extended alcohol sales becomes popular public policy in US and UK.
• Underage consumption of alcohol under supervision of a parent or legal guardian is legalized in many states in the US in early 2005.
• Bird flu spreads through South East Asia; countries begin preparing for a potential bird flu epidemic, fearing that it could mutate into a form that could transfer easily from person to person and kill millions of people. Bird flu spreads rapidly into Europe in October 2005.
• Criticism of Vladimir Putin's governmental policies and reforms mount and a backlash of Soviet-nostalgia occurs in Russia.
• On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina strikes southeastern Louisiana, U.S., killing 1,300 people and devastating the city New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. People and life later return to New Orleans, but many analysts expect that New Orleans will never return to the way it was before.
• A major earthquake in Kashmir kills close to 80,000 people on October 8, 2005, devastating Kashmir and forcing the mass evacuation of mountain towns as winter approaches.
• Arctic sea ice cover reaches record lows; global warming continues to be a major concern.
• National Social Norms Resource Center established in U.S.
• DWI Courts introduced in U.S.
• The 2005 Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season becomes the most active on record. First use of the Greek naming system after traditional names exhausted.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Events and trends", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki