A new computer bulletin board in Toronto dedicated to small business has already drawn more than 100 sign-ons.
The new bulletin board (BBS), started late last month, is called big.
Marketing and sales
It provides on-line information on such topics as marketing and sales, advertising rates and media lists, electronic publishing templates, federal and provincial assistance to business programs, direct marketing databases, and more.
Bill Bishop, president of Bishop Information Group, says the monthly fee for the big BBS is $10.
Bishop says, in contrast, using The Globe and Mail’s Info-Globe database, for example, costs about $3 a minute.
Development
He says he and his partner Curtis Verstraete worked on the bbs for more than two years to be sure it was structured properly and the bugs had been worked out.
Bishop says big uses the First Class bbs software developed by SoftArc in Toronto.
He says the software has an easy-to-use graphical user interface (point and click mechanism) for Apple and ms-dos operating systems.
To use big is as ‘easy as [using] a Mac,’ says Bishop, adding the time limit for users – for now – is one hour.
Bishop, who admits to having ‘3,000’ BBS ideas, says, in general, information on the big bbs will be free apart from the $10-a-month fee, although it may carry, at some point, information users have to pay for.
The big BBS number to call is (416) 364-8770. DC
