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"Once upon a time...."
This is the story of
The Barber Shop Bookstore —
"home of the Evergreen e-Port".
It all starts the early '90s with a computer trainer named
Jim Barber
(that's me) loading useful (I hope) information for speakers onto the Internet.
(SEFLIN — the Southeast Florida Library
Information Network — provided access to the Internet when almost everyone
— including me — was
still using DOS and dial-up modems.)
Over the next few years, the Internet evolved into the World Wide Web and
I opened The
Barber Shop as an independent site for speakers in
1997.
I continued to expand The Barber Shop and
in 2000, PC World magazine named The Barber Shop a
"top ten" website for professional speakers. Then in 2002, I opened The Barber Shop Bookstore
as its own site. "E-books" were being introduced to consumers, and there
was a lot of interest in them... and a lot of confusion as well.
So I coined the term "e-port" to describe
short, easily downloadable "how to" modules.
The Barber Shop Bookstore became "Home of the E-port".
(By the way, I haven't trademarked the term "e-port". It would suit me fine if it made
its way into general usage, so feel free to use "e-port" to describe
your own how-to resources.)
I continually updated The Bookstore, but by 2007 it was apparent that
it needed a major overhaul. So in 2008 I threw everything out, and rebuilt the site
from the ground up.
But the changes weren't just cosmetic. It had always bothered me that
people who purchased informational resources were expected to pay for updates.
Then a friend of mine, the sax musician SteveB, gave me
an idea that grew into customers' having the ability of downloading updates for a year —
at no additional charge.
Thus, the "evergreen" e-port was born, and The Barber Shop Bookstore became "The
Home of the Evergreen E-port".
"And they lived happily ever after!"
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And that's the story of The Barber Shop Bookstore.
As always, in all things, I wish you every success!
Jim Barber
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