Here we are — 2010 — and regardless of whether you call it “twenty-ten” or “two thousand-ten” (I prefer the latter), we can look forward to significant change in the new year. Or not…I’ve never been very prescient; I can’t even accurately predict what we’re having dinner.

Arthur C. Clarke envisioned 2010 as the year we finally find out what’s with all the monolith business in 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 2010: Odyssey Two, an international space crew travels to Jupiter and its moon Europa and finds we’re not alone in the solar system.

According to Sidney Friedman, a mentalist who visited the CBS Early Show, this year is part of a “seven to eight year cycle that evolves to a kind of Renaissance in the economy with incredible invention, resourcefulness and discovery resulting in new businesses, better times for current businesses, and thus more jobs and major growth in the economy.” So we have THAT going for us!

Technology analyst firm IDC predicts 2010 will be the year of the cloud. “Cloud computing will expand and mature as we see a strategic battle for cloud platform leadership, new public cloud hot spots, private cloud offerings, cloud appliances, and offerings that bridge public and private clouds.”

2010 will also be more insecure from a technology standpoint, as malware targets the Google Chrome OS and Adobe applications.

Could 2010 be the end of free? Bo Parker, managing director of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Center for Technology and Innovation, thinks so. He predicts information sources will offer free samples, but that the most sought-after data will be available by paid subscription. He also predicts that traditional print media may very well go bankrupt, creating such a demand for high-quality content that users will once again pay for information. Broadband services may also begin to cap bandwidth, charging extra for use over the cap.

One prediction I can confidently make: I’ll be back to school on Monday, January 4th, working with Mr. Pedzich’s English 101 classes. We’ll be using Google customized searches to find media sources — as long as ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS don’t pull the plug on their free content, it should be very productive!

Have a safe, healthy and fulfilling New Year!