In 2011, the U.S. economy will come roaring back as our businesses and their customers gain confidence that the electorate has come to its senses and chosen not to grow governments but economies instead.
In 2011, the last jihadist jerk will accidently blow himself up, at home without harming anyone else.
In 2011, the progress of solar energy will be outpaced by natural gas but accelerating against coal.
[Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of posts from Xconomists and other technology and life sciences leaders from around the U.S. who are weighing in with the top surprises they’ve seen in their respective fields in the past year, or the major things to watch for in 2011.]
Author: Bob Metcalfe
Bob Metcalfe is Professor of Innovation and Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. He was an Internet pioneer, starting at MIT and Harvard in 1970, and continuing into the 1990s in Silicon Valley. He invented Ethernet in 1973 at Xerox Parc and founded 3Com Corporation in 1979. In 2011, 1.2 billion new Ethernet ports were shipped -- 400 million wired and 800 million WiFi -- and 3Com, after peaking with $5.7B in revenue in 1999 and after 30 years of independent operation, became part of HP. In the 1990s, Bob was Publisher-CEO of InfoWorld and wrote an Internet column read weekly by half a million IT professionals. In the 2000s, Bob was General Partner of the venture capital firm Polaris Venture Partners near Boston. Professor Metcalfe now lives in Austin, Texas and aims to help make Austin a better Silicon Valley.
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