If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1 000 MPG.

In terms of the technology I use the most it's probably a tie between my Blackberry and my MacBook Pro laptop. That's how I communicate with the rest of the world and how I handle all the business I have to handle.

Design in its broadest sense is the enabler of the digital era - it's a process that creates order out of chaos that renders technology usable to business. Design means being good not just looking good.

Many people see technology as the problem behind the so-called digital divide. Others see it as the solution. Technology is neither. It must operate in conjunction with business economic political and social system.

Not since the digital revolution in the early '90s has technology placed such a comprehensive burden on business employees and individuals to reinvent their business plans services and products and themselves to keep pace with the changing marketplace.

Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

So let's not use a stylus. We're going to use the best pointing device in the world. We're going to use a pointing device that we're all born with - born with ten of them. We're going to use our fingers. We're going to touch this with our fingers. And we have invented a new technology called multi-touch which is phenomenal. It works like magic.

I think it's brought the world a lot closer together and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I've ever seen is called television - but then again television at its best is magnificent.

So as I look at transitioning to the communication platforms of the future I see that the beauty of Internet protocols is you get the separation of the layers between service and technology.