Last week, I gave a brief history of the Web (see The Future of Success), and asked readers to send me their thoughts and ideas as to what the next phase of the Internet would be. I told you that I had my own idea, and it started with an "N." Ideas that arrived in my mailbox included Napster, networking, and my favorite, neurons (the idea that people would finally start using their brains on the Web).

Since I''m out here by myself -- no one else even ventured in this direction -- I''m either completely off base, or a visionary. I believe the future of the Web is about neighborhoods.

Anarchy Is Overrated
The Web is this colossal, global, disorganized mess. There was a time everyone thought that was a great thing. Imagine being able to order Indian cotton tablecloths directly from India, Russian icons directly from a Russian monastery, and scones directly from a bed-and-breakfast in Scotland, all without leaving your office chair. In theory, this is great. Couldn''t be better! In practice, it turns out that you have to give out your personal and payment information to all these merchants, all of whom operate under different privacy rules and with different security practices regarding the use of your credit card information. Some of these merchants even use third parties to settle charges, so your personal information might leave their hands.

Phew! I get exhausted just thinking about how much of myself I have to disclose to complete strangers whom I have little reason to trust. How much simpler it was when I walked down the street (or even the strip mall) and purchased from real people who took my cash and bagged my merchandise. If a shop owner gave me a funny look, I didn''t go back there. If there was a rough element in the store, I steered clear and hoped the shop would go out of business or at least move out of my neighborhood.

One of my co-authors on the upcoming virtual consulting book pointed out to me that B2B marketplaces for neighborhood business services were already beginning to form. Certainly, if you''re going to put out an RFP (request for proposal) for trash collection services, you should be sure that bidders actually pick up from your street in your town.

Neighborhoods Mimic Social Organizations
Consumer neighborhoods, however, will be not restricted by geography. The Internet has changed the concept of neighborhoods. Who are my neighbors? Any of the 20 or more e-correspondents I have all over the world. Neighborhoods don''t have to (but can) be geographically restricted.

Neighborhoods will have centers, which will be the evolution of portals, but not necessarily commercial portals (layoffs at many of the big portals - Excite and AltaVista to name two - forebode the demise of the current model of mega commercial portal). Neighborhood centers will be the result of grassroots organizations, such as the Newcomers and Neighbors Club, a sorority or fraternity, or philanthropic organizations that create a safe harbor within the mass chaos of the Web. There is a lot of fear and distrust out there. My mother even told me that her friends warn her about identity theft. Pity the fool who posts a meatloaf recipe to a recipe board and finds her mailbox full of SPAM. It won''t take much for reluctant surfers to sign up with neighborhood centers with trusted names.

Initially, mega portals will try to co-brand these neighborhood groups with their own technology. Off-the-shelf software eventually will obviate the need for co-branding. Finally, ASPs will provide turnkey solutions.

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Neighbors Replace Dot Com Execs
Want to know who''s going to be running these neighborhood portals? What''s going to pay for them? Most likely, these neighborhood portals will be free and will be administered by the same public servants who serve as scoutmasters, chair the rummage sale at church, and sit on the executive committee of the Boys'' and Girls'' Clubs. And they''ll get paid the same: nothing.

ASPs will develop software and the grassroots groups will provide the traffic. Advertising revenue, while too modest to fund lavish advertising budgets and expensive in-house development, will be adequate to pay the ASP fees. Staff expenses will be low - think church secretary - because the management will be made of volunteers.

What will neighborhood portals offer? Pre-screened merchants that agree to adhere to the policies (privacy, security, shipping, returns, etc.) of the group. The book Net Worth alluded to some of this when the authors, John Hagel and Marc Singer, talked about large organizations such as AARP selling access to its members in exchange for something back for each of its members. I don''t think neighborhoods will be entirely commercial, though. I also don''t think that AARP is a great model for a neighborhood, since it doesn''t necessarily represent shared interests or values -- just common birth years.

What else will neighborhood portals have to offer? Links to sites that comply with their own standards. Just as people move to communities that have zoning laws and home-building ordinances they support in order not to have their children have to walk past adult book stores on their way to school, neighborhoods will go a long way toward offering secure surfing experiences for parents who don''t want their young children surfing just anywhere.

Sites that comply with the neighborhoods'' standards will be expected to disable any risqué links when people coming from those neighborhoods visit those sites. In other words, personalization for the community.

Is this a crazy idea? Has all the information and purchasing potential at our disposal improved our lives? In Phase 0, the academics owned the Web. Phase 1 saw it taken over by technicians. In Phase 2, financiers supplanted the techies. Today, business development reigns; a handshake replaced the dollar sign. Why not regular folks replacing dot com execs?

Alexis D. Gutzman is an E-commerce Technology Author and Consultant and author of The HTML 4 Bible, FrontPage 2000 Answers!, and ColdFusion 4 for Dummies. Her newest book, The E-commerce Arsenal: 12 Technologies You Need to Prevail in the Digital Arena is now available. She can be reached at agutzman@internet.com