It is so easy to get caught up in the big business or big technology or the little-guy-gets-screwed aspects of high technology, and forget what wonderful toys we actually have. And beyond the toys, technology has created for us both a market and a forum for discussion of that market. The Internet is the greatest medium of communication and collaboration yet created. And the ease with which we can collaborate over the Net changes everything when it comes to sharing knowledge and pushing forward projects. I see this every day not only in putting together this column, but also in my hobby of building airplanes, where mailing lists and specialized web sites make me a much better-informed danger to the flying public than I ever was before. What brings all this to mind this particular week is a very interesting web site — www.aolhistory.com.

Most browsers include a "history" button to help you know where on the Net you have been before and help you get back there quicker. Browsing histories are also useful for enforcing restrictions on where employees and children are allowed to surf. In fact, there is a tidy little industry for applications that wipe history files and browser memory caches clean specifically to keep the boss (or Mom) from knowing where you have been. But good or bad, America Online has no "history" button. There is no easy way to know where you — or anyone else whose brain you feel like controlling — has been. That is until Bruce Forkush thought of aolhistory.com.

You see it is not that AOL doesn't keep track of where you have surfed. It just doesn't have a means of easily sharing that information with users. For the diabolically-minded, it is easy to see that the history information could be gathered and used by AOL or Microsoft, but I doubt that is a factor, either. More likely, the information is just there because it was always there for Internet Explorer NOT running under AOL. It is a vestigial history file. Bruce Forkush figured the history file had to exist, so there ought to be a way to display the file and aolhistory.com is the result — a simple javascript that reaches into the bowels of your computer at your command and shows AOL users where and when they have been on the Web. For the moment, it only works for versions of AOL running on Windows computers, so Macintosh users are still anonymous and sneaky.

There are so many things I like about this site, which is still in beta test. For all the web logs and pictures from family vacations that one might throw on a web page, this thing actually DOES something, and it does something that is useful for more than 20 million people. Think of it as a business. Aolhistory.com needs no updating, no refreshing, it just sits there — probably with a little banner ad — generating revenue for Bruce Forkush for years to come. I think the guy is brilliant. I also happen to know he isn't much of a programmer. And that is where we get back to the beauty of the Internet for collaboration.

While Bruce Forkush knew he wanted a history button for AOL, he didn't know how to program one. He didn't know javascript at all, and still doesn't. Instead, like Blanche DeBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire," Bruce relied on the kindness of strangers, using various web resources to gain programming help for his project.

"I've used hotdispatch.com, where I was able to offer very small cash rewards for advice," explained Forkush. "Last year, I used knowledgemarket.earthweb.com, with the same setup, but I don't think they do that any more. One of the key answers I received to make it all work was at a bulletin board at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroups/default.asp. However, the advice and timeliness at Experts-exchange.com has been thebest. It's free, unless you want to upgrade your membership for a few extraperks. Last year, my javaScript questions were answered, in detail, byMichel Plungian, co-author of Instant JavaScript."

You, too, can be an Internet entrepreneur. No experience required.

Like Bruce Forkush, you can start a business from almost nothing and make it instantly useful to millions of people. And while millions of eyeballs might not be enough for VC-backed businesses to be successful anymore, they are plenty for the Bruce Forkushes of the world. All you need is an idea and the ability to describe it. You don't need programming ability. You don't even need a program, at least not to verify if you idea is a good one.

"There's a very interesting investment gap that's opened in software," says Jeff Tarter, editor of Soft-Letter, a software industry newsletter based in Watertown, Massachusetts. "The venture capitalists have gotten too big to invest in software companies, which leaves lots of opportunities doing applications for vertical niche markets that are too small to be funded by the VCs or noticed by Microsoft."

According to Tarter, the way to become a minimogul in software is to write (or have someone write) an application for a business you are very familiar with. "If you are in the car repair business, write an application for car repair businesses. If there is good market research available on the niche you are considering, avoid it, because some big player has already paid to have the research done so it's too late. If your idea sounds crazy to most of your friends, it's probably a good one. Go for it."

And going for it, to Tarter, does not necessarily mean to start writing computer code. "I worked for Time-Life Books right out of college," he said. "They'd advertise a new series of books, accept orders, then decide whether to actually produce the books. If not enough orders came in, they'd just send out letters saying the series was cancelled. No books were written and only marketing money was spent."

Tarter says to do the same thing in software. Write an ad, design a demo program, but don't write the real thing until enough orders come in to justify it. "For $10,000 you can find out whether the idea will work or not even before you've written a line of code. Then if it looks good, go out and hire a programmer."

Or not, as Bruce Forkush did. There is a guy whom I'm sure spent a lot less than $10,000 to get started.

But what is a good idea? Well aolhistory.com is already taken, though it could probably be ripped off, maybe even by AOL. Just come up with another clever idea. Or, take one of mine:

Remember those programs I described that wipe clean your computer to keep others from knowing where and when you surfed? The only problem with those programs is they leave a squeaky clean system that makes you look to the boss like you are hiding something, whether you are or not. So rather than delete files and caches, my idea would be to REPLACE them. You could start www.cleancache.com and have there sample history files and caches ready for downloading. Just choose a profile — little kid, history professor, java programmer, soccer mom — and actual content from actual people would be downloaded, replacing your surfing identity with theirs. It would be easy to do, hasn't been done, and no matter what your level of technical skill, Bruce Forkush has shown us the way.