2007: The year in review

2007: we'll always remember it as the year of the... well, year of the what, exactly? So much happened in tech this year that we can't sum up the year with a single label. So we asked the Ars staff to reflect on the event, product, or trend that defined 2007, a year that saw both the announcement and introduction of the iPhone, the growth of 700MHz "spectrum fever," and the Jammie Thomas trial.

On the next page, we present our predictions for 2008, a year that promises to be no less exciting than its predecessor. So without further ado, let's jump right in.

Let the debate begin.

2007: The Year of Jammie Thomas

Eric Bangeman, Managing Editor

Although the RIAA's legal campaign against file-sharers has been going strong for over four years, most cases are largely settled out of sight. The vast majority of cases were settled out of court, often with the RIAA's target writing the record labels a four-digit check to make the copyright infringement complaint go away. A few cases have managed to wind their way through the legal system, with defendants even scoring a couple of high-profile victories over the RIAA. But of the nearly 30,000 cases filed so far, only one has gone to trial.

I had the chance to cover the Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas trial in person this past fall, and, as I wrote afterwards, it turned out to be the perfect storm for the RIAA. The defendant had only a single PC hooked up to her cable modem, had used the same online handle (tereastarr) for over a decade (including on KaZaA), and the judge set a low barrier for an infringement finding by ruling that the mere presence of MP3s in a shared KaZaA folder constituted infringement, rather than forcing the RIAA to show that actual distribution took place. Thomas lost the case.

As we enter a new year, the RIAA shows no sign of backing off its legal campaign, and we may very well see some more high-profile cases resolved—and maybe even another trial.

2007: Year of Open Access

Nate Anderson, Associate Editor

In a single year, wireless open access advocacy in the US went from a murmur to a shout loud enough to wake the dead. And by dead, I mean "telcos." Skype complained early in the year about the need for wireless network neutrality, and Columbia's Tim Wu helped fuel the fire. But it wasn't until Google waded into the telco-dominated world of spectrum auctions and demanded (and got) open access rules from the FCC that things began to hum. In a few short months, Verizon went from suing the FCC to proclaiming itself a huge believer in open networks. AT&T even tried to gate-crash the open access party. Although the real payoff will come in 2008 and beyond, 2007 is the year that open access became plausible, and it's the year that Google unveiled the true extent of its power by forcing even the federal government to take it seriously.

2007: Year of Online Video

Jacqui Cheng, Infinite Loop Editor

No, not user-generated video. Professionally-created video that comes from networks and movie studios. Apple and Microsoft kicked off late 2006 by offering select video downloads, but TV and movies online exploded throughout 2007. It's easier than ever to find current TV shows through officially-endorsed means, even if some of those methods are still a bit locked-down and sandboxed. Unbox, Hulu, even that stupid Jackass 2.5 movie are examples of efforts to offer more online video options than we've had before, and once the studios start to get wise to the pitfalls of DRM (like the music industry has finally done), we'll really start getting somewhere.

2007: Year of the Climate

John Timmer, Nobel Intent Editor

For the past few decades, scientists have been collecting evidence that we've been messing with the climate for over a century. But it seemed to only take one year for the attitude in the US to shift from climate worries being viewed as a fringe controversy to one where there was widespread acceptance and concern. That year seems to have been 2007, where the climate was constantly in the news. The year began with Al Gore's Oscar win, then moved on to Al Gore's Nobel Prize, with a constant drumbeat of IPCC reports providing the background rhythm. The public started paying attention. In part due to its increased acceptance of the science, 2008 looks like it will see the first legislation intended to do something about climate change passed (and probably vetoed).

2007: Year of User-generated Video

Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, Senior CPU Editor

When Google snapped up YouTube at the end of 2006, the user-generated online video party was really just getting started. 2007 saw a number of sites and blogs, including Ars Technica, dip a toe in the online video waters, as the software and hardware tools for making and distributing video online got cheaper and more refined. But the place where user-generated video content (and video content that pretended to be user-generated) had the biggest impact was undoubtedly the presidential primary contest. From widely-viewed viral campaign ads like "I got a crush... on Obama" and "Vote Different" (aka "Hillary 1984") to the CNN/YouTube primary debates, 2007 was the year that online video fundamentally altered the campaign media landscape like nothing since the first televised Nixon-versus-Kennedy debate of 1960.

2007: Year of Casual Gaming

Ben Kuchera, Gaming Editor

Casual gaming is big business, and in the near future, the difference between "hardcore" and "casual" may cease to exist. If you waited in line for four hours to buy your Wii, if you show up every Friday to play Rock Band at the local pub, if you have mastered every board on Peggle... are you really not a hardcore gamer? Studies show that more Americans game than don't, and it's an increasingly social activity. Gaming has been threatening to go mainstream for a long time: in 2007 it might have finally broken through.