We plan to institute a bulletin board system here as soon as we can. Until then, here are some comments we have received from users:
This is a very valuable service for all people. This is what the internet has needed. I do searches often so I know of what I speak... It's difficult to find timely or reliable information. Your site will allow individuals and companies to accurately tell others about their skills and trades. Thank you for doing this!!!! I do believe that we need to get listed asap.--Nancy Frick. October 3, 1996. Phoenix, AZ.
Here's an article about the Resource Guide, from the November 1996 issue of New Texas Magazine:
Healthy Living Resource Guide
Remember when interplanetary travel was just in the comic books? And a computer took up a whole room? And Austin was just a quiet little town in Texas?
Today interplanetary exploration is so commonplace that we hardly turn an interested ear... personal computers are everywhere in offices, classrooms, airports, even playgrounds... and Austin is anything but just a quiet little town in Texas!
Austin figured out a long time ago how to make an awfully loud statement without ever speaking above a whisper. Born from free-thinkers and innovators tired of the imprisonment of the ordinary, Austin called to people who had exciting visions and dreams and were anxious to embrace a healthier way of life. It has become a mecca for practitioners of holistic healing arts and sciences.
"There are so many practitioners here in Austin that many of them retain a low profile, and so it's sometimes hard to locate exactly the kind of practitioner you want," declares Robert McGarey, M.A., who founded Austin's nonprofit Human Potential Center over ten years ago. "That's why we created the first interactive searchable database directory for Holistic, Alternative, Spiritual, Humanistic, Wellness and Recovery oriented healing modalities and made it available on the World Wide Web. We call it the Healthy Living Resource Guide." All this from right here in little ole quiet Austin.
"As 'age-old' new approaches take their rightful places alongside mainstream modalities, we felt it was time to give people what they needed--a way to quickly obtain accurate and consistent information on these new approaches," declares McGarey. "By word of mouth, it could take 3 or 4 weeks to find something specific--like a massage therapist in Northwest Austin who studied Reiki and Edgar Cayce and charges $45 an hour. And that's assuming that you were lucky enough to talk to the right people. The Resource Guide helps you do the same thing in 3 or 4 minutes instead of 3 or 4 weeks.
"Unlike the Yellow Pages and other paper directories, the Resource Guide lets you locate services based on whatever is important to you, rather than on the predefined categories established by the phone company. And because it's on the World Wide Web, you can locate services conveniently from home or work, wherever you have an internet connection." He goes on to add, "You don't need to be a techno wizard to use the Guide and enjoy it. It is a very user-friendly set-up.
"The system was designed so that practitioners can communicate the essentials about their work easily and conveniently, and update their own listing any time, day or night, at no extra charge," cites McGarey like a proud new papa. "It is a state of the art vehicle that offers much more that just a home page, because it helps you find your perfect clients--people who want exactly what you offer and will be likely to really benefit from your services, become a loyal customer and tell their friends and relatives about you.
"The directory allows for advertising and perpetuating these arts and sciences without all the extra gimmicks of the everyday media." He laughs and adds "...you can get the extra glitzy stuff for your listing in the Resource Guide... but it will cost a little more!"
Now millions of people surfing The Net around the world have access to the same facts and data... thus finding another way to bind together global Human Potential.
So whether you're an international traveler stressed out, all stove-up and delayed in some unscheduled whistle stop, or a mother looking for healthy alternatives for her family, the Resource Guide has answers for you at the touch of a button.
So get comfy, get educated, and get healthy with one of the most innovative Resource Guides ever. Just another little explosive innovation from this little quiet town in Texas.
- Pamela Harper
RESOURCES
Though it hasn't yet officially 'opened its doors,' you can already tour the Guide and see what it's capable of. Just point your browser to www.HealthyLiving.org, or call (512) 441-2688. You can list your holistic products or services for as little as $7 a month, and nonprofits list for free.