Fortune Magazine’s Summer Technology 2001 issue poses the question, "Has technology reached its limits?" And their answer: "There’s an apparent lull in innovation."

Here are some billion-dollar ideas that we’ll write a check for:

A web design package that doesn’t require programming. A company like ours cannot function and compete today without a constant, changing presence on the World Wide Web. In the old days, you had to be able to patch a tire and be a shade tree mechanic in order to drive a car. We’re still there with websites. We need a web design package where you have the functions of write, paste, and post—end of matter. If the technology existed to do this with software we didn’t need specialists to manipulate, we could compete with amazon.com or anyone else. A billion dollar idea—I guarantee it!

A Real Office 2000. I would borrow money to buy an office software application like MS Office that could truly integrate all the functions I use during the day. It would be so self-guided that I could accomplish the tasks as easily as I operate my automobile with a Help Feature that really works. Microsoft has dropped its best features, the conspiracy theorists among us believe to make us buy more software by splitting the features among several types of software.

Why they’ve changed the architecture of their software I don’t know. They moved around or eliminated truly logical functions and it’s like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom trying to find them. Then they have the nerve to say they’ve improved and we should buy the next one.

I want a credible graphics program, spreadsheets, word processing, presentation software that is slicker and more intuitive than Power Point--and easy access to email and the Web. From what I read of the upcoming version of Windows, these things are possible, but will continue to be clumsy and frustrating.

An Affordable Wireless, Peer-to-Peer Network. We’re getting closer here, but no cigar yet. Large organizations like Starbucks are beginning to go wireless. The power of pulling up a file from anywhere and working collaboratively from any site would give me a huge competitive advantage. It would cost me more to install, but I would probably regain those costs in the course of a year because of less maintenance. And just think of never having to cable again!