There's speculation that steampunk increased in popularity due to its parallels between Victorian and modern times. Two books recently written -- one on the craze of "true crime" reporting in Victorian London and one on the perils of 19th century anarchist terrorism activity -- would seem to add some support to that theory.  (I think one could draw parallels between any two eras without much difficulty, really, but this is a fun road to explore.)

A retrospective on 2010, of sorts: awards for best steampunk-themed website/book/film/and more have been announced on Facebook!

Matthew David Surridge has written a wonderful essay on steampunk-themed fiction, exploring works by Tim Powers, Felix Gilman and China Miéville (among other authors) and sticking up for adventure fiction. Huzzah!

There are going to be many opportunities to debate steampunk culture this year: Tor.com has a list of steampunk-related conventions for 2011.

And, if you can't get to any of the conventions, you could make your own steampunk-esque compass and go geocaching out in the woods or the city where you live. (You should do that anyway, really. Geocaching is all kinds of fun.)