Internet guru Bill Storie yesterday alerted members of the Hamilton Rotary Club to new technology certain to hit Bermuda.

A sneak preview of `the Bermuda just around the corner', according to Mr.

Storie, sees e-commerce operations centres at Southside, large data storage warehouses, virtual private network hubs (VPNs) and the convergence of digital TV with the Internet.

Declaring that he sees the Island profiting from e-commerce in the area of service, Mr. Storie advised timing is crucial.

"Places such as Silicon Valley in California will always be the engine room of the Internet.'' he said. "Let them invent, innovate, design and develop.

They have the talent, the resources and the venture capital.

"But when their clients broaden their customer base to reach out to the world -- as is easily done with the Internet -- and they realise that there may be certain fiscal benefits by locating part of the business offshore, then let Bermuda flourish at that stage in the development. Not before then and certainly not after when it has gone elsewhere.'' Mr. Storie stressed the importance of investing in the youth.

"The future of Bermuda lies in our young people,'' he held. "But the future of our young people lies in our hands.'' Proclaiming that education will take a new twist and become `edutainment' he spoke of advances in broadcast media.

"We will see a new breed of television service,'' he said. "The convergence of digital TV and the Internet will create new business models including interactive cable TV, extensive personal choice TV programming, changes to the way local broadcasting services, especially TV stations, go about their business, international business broadcasting from a Bermuda base and `edutainment' -- the combination of education and entertainment.'' Get ready for e-commerce boom He added, "We will see e-commerce operations centres being established especially at Southside.

"These will accommodate large banks of server equipment in what is referred to as co-location centres.'' he continued. "They will be used by companies having a presence in Bermuda to conduct their global online business. It's happening now.'' Network communication centres for long distance telecommunications and large data warehouses which store the vast information and data for companies and Governments of the world are other operations Bermuda will have to take on.

Mr. Storie pointed out that Bermuda's legislative framework, data protection and telecommunications services make it ideal for the new business of virtual private network hubs.

"We will see virtual private network hubs, or VPN's as they are called, being located in Bermuda.'' he said.

"These will be for individual corporate entities to accommodate their in-house, across the world, office to office messaging and information transportation.

"They will also include hook-ups to some of their major suppliers, contractors and customers.'' Seeing education, capital and vision as the "three key ingredients'' of making e-commerce work in Bermuda, Mr. Storie said he felt education is the most important.

"The future of the Internet in Bermuda, the future of e-commerce, the future of our young people and above all else the future of Bermuda is not in cyberspace,'' he said. "It is not in the hands of the computer companies, it is not solely in the hands of Government, it is in your hands.'' .