2011 has been terrifying. Our international social-economic crisis is getting worse and we live in a very unstable political situation. There’s also been natural disasters like the one in Japan or Thailand. But that doesn’t mean 2011 has been a bad year, on the contrary, it’s been LEGENDARY!

It’s been a year of Hope, the Arab Spring started in Tunisia, the 15M movement here in Spain that was copied in other parts of the world like the Occupy Wall Street Movement , Anonymous, a new way to fight for a rights using the Internet and the fight against terrorism. The Internet and social media has demonstrated their power that must not be underestimated nor censored and if a government from any country tries to fight against our liberty, they can be sure, like some governments have already seen, that the population is going to fight back and they are going to use the Internet to win.

2011 has been a year where a big change in society has started to make itself clear.

Google did a really nice video about 2011 that you can see below:

2011 has also been a very important for technology. People are now used to having a smartphone in the pocket and Android takes the lead here being the most used smartphone OS. SMS is starting to die in the hands of services like Whatsapp. Like I mentioned earlier, social media is growing in an uncontrollable manner, and it was thanks to Twitter and Facebook that people got together to defend what they believed in. It has also helped to reunite friends and family and to make new friends. A new social network of great importance has also appeared, Google+ which looks pretty amazing and is breaking all the records set by other websites. We musn’t forget the death of very important people in the tech sector like Dennis Ritchie who worked on C and UNIX, Steve Jobs, John McCarthy (Lisp), Ken Olsen (DEC) and a few others.

It has also been a very important year for me. First, I would like to take a look back at my resolutions for 2011 that I wrote when finishing 2010 and see how well I’ve done:

1. Murcia GTUG has been doing great and it’s one of the best things I’ve done in my life. The feedback from other developers has been fantastic and it has let me meet a lot of very interesting people and opened a whole lot of opportunities for me. Exabyters was another thing I wanted to do in 2011 but it was overlapped by the GTUG and I decided to dedicate all my time to Murcia GTUG.
2. I’ve definitely learnt a lot about programming. I’ve broaden my knowledge on a lot of languages and have done real projects where I could use all I had learnt and learn even more. I also had the opportunity to work at a few startups from London, which was fantastic.
3. I managed to go to Mobile World Congress 2011, and by the way, I’m also going in 2012. It was very troublesome but in the end I managed to attend this magnificent event. And after that came Droidcon UK 2011 which was also very interesting.
4. I did go to London, and not for a month but for 40 days. I’ve never been so much time without my parent and it was definitely a great experience. I was able to attend a lot of amazing events and conferences and I also worked in a few startups.
5. I managed to get a new phone thanks to Google, I got a Nexus One.
6. I also finished ESO with really good marks and I also got good marks in the first term of Bachillerato.

So it looks like I’ve done pretty well this year, I’ve done everything I wanted and everything has gone much better than I could have imagined. 2011 has been the year when Luis Iván Cuende and I have started working on our startup which we’ll be announcing shortly. This is a very interesting project which has got me really motivated. We’re putting all our effort into this and a lot of other people are helping us out.

I’ve also been very surprised by the number of times I’ve appeared in the media. I’ve had a lot of great interviews and now a lot more people know about me.  I’ve met a lot of great people throughout the year and I’m sure I’ll meet a lot of these people in person next year.

I want to say thank you to a lot of people, but I would probably need another year just to write all their names, and I would still forget a lot of them. I would like to mention shortly:

• My parents for all their support and help even though we do fight about a lot of things, but I always know they’re always there for me and they put up a lot of effort to help me with everything I need.
• My brother Dani, even though we live far apart, it’s great to have a brother like him. And he even had me in his house for a quite a long time this year. Congratulations on your baby girl!
• My girlfriend María, for just being there and making me smile.
• My good friends Loli, Elena and José Ramón with whom I’ve had a lot of fun throughout the year, and also Marina, who I haven’t known for long but she has been a great friend.
• Luis Iván, my CoFounder, encouraging me everyday to do my best and for working with me on this exciting project.
• The guys at CEEIM for betting on me so much.

Thank you 2011!