ASP News and Announcements

ASP, the Association of Shareware Professionals, today announced that it has joined the Microsoft BizSpark Program as a Network Partner. BizSpark is an innovative new Microsoft program specifically designed to provide early stage high-potential Startups with software, support and visibility to help ignite their success. As BizSpark Network Partner, ASP is able to sponsor qualifying members to join the program at no extra cost.

BizSpark unites Startups with entrepreneurial and technology resources in a global community, by providing access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools, platform technologies plus production licenses of server products for immediate use in developing and bringing to market innovative and interoperable solutions.

A wide range of support resources is available from a global community of Network Partners - incubators, investors, advisors, government agencies and hosters - that are equally involved and vested in software-fueled innovation and entrepreneurship.

"The amount of software available is amazing from Windows 3.1 to Server 2008, from VC 97 to Visual Studio 2008, Expression Suite (not just Expression Web) and so much, much more. The timing couldn't be better for me as I'm developing a utility that I need to test with as many applications as I can. There is a lot of other stuff (other than software) that I haven't even begun to explore", stated ASP member Dexter Bell, developer of FileBoss and owner of The Utility Factory.

Eligibility requirements are minimal: privately held companies building a software-based product or service (even using open source code), in business for fewer than three years, and with less than USD$1M in annual revenue.

To join BizSpark, companies must be sponsored by a BizSpark Network Partner, such as ASP. No payment or credit card information is required, and there are no upfront costs. Microsoft will assess a USD$100 program exit fee at the end of participation in the program, or the end of three years, whichever comes first.

"We're delighted to facilitate access for our Startup members to the BizSpark program and help accelerate their success. It is so important today to make use of such wide pool of resources and peer network. Not to mention the visibility the program gives to a global audience of potential investors, clients and partners. Member feedback so far has been extremely positive" mentioned Mike Dulin, President of the ASP.

More program details can be found on www.microsoftstartupzone.com.

ASP is the world's main trade organization for independent software developers and vendors, focused on providing know-how through various events and resources. Software professionals have access to helpful business information, and archives providing useful assistance to newcomers.

Disclaimer: The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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About ASP

Founded in 1987, the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the understanding of shareware software industry through advocacy, standards, research, and technology. It offers rich information on how to start and grow a software business, from development to marketing and customer service, as well as personalized advice. ASP also functions as a liaison between shareware authors, microISVs, beginners and leaders, distributors and marketers facilitating contacts and sharing experience. For more information on the Association of Shareware Professionals, please go to www.asp-shareware.org.

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For PR related information, please contact:
Adriana Iordan
Marketing & PR Manager
Association of Shareware Professionals
Phone: +31 20 890 8080
Email: publicrelations@asp-shareware.org

For membership related information, please contact:
Mike Dulin,
President of the ASP
president@asp-shareware.org

ASP Welcomes Software Professionals ASP Brings News on Safer Downloads at SIC 2008
July 8, 2008

Indiana, IN USA –

ASP, the Association of Shareware Professionals, will be at the Software Industry Conference 2008 (SIC.ORG), held between July 17 and 19, taking place at the Boston Marriott Quincy in Massachusetts.

Along with a key speech on participation focusing on safer downloads, ASP is also organizing an ASP Lunch where all attending volunteers are recognized and rewarded for their service to the association. A hospitality room, where everybody is welcomed for discussions on the shareware community, will also include an interactive presentation, and one-to-one meetings.

“We are very happy to meet software developers and share knowledge that eventually takes the industry forward”, says Mike Dulin, President of the ASP. “ASP is coming to the SIC event to offer its support to all members during presentations and awards, to interact with as many software professionals as possible and present membership benefits. The SIC event is the major industry event of the year and we are looking forward to some challenging talks on software business there”, adds Mike Dulin.

Fred Clabuesch (Safer Downloads Project Manager and ASP Treasurer & Director) is giving a specialized presentation on Why Should you be Using File Downloading Services? together with Michael Halls on July 18th, 13.00 o'clock, in Room B.

Association of Shareware Professionals 2008: New Officers and New Objectives
March 6, 2008

Indiana, IN USA – The Association of Shareware Professionals, ASP, the leading trade organization for Independent Software Developers and Vendors since 1987, announces its 2008 strategy as well as the newly elected officers and volunteers to promote software authors and the try-before-you-buy market throughout the year. In 2008 the association continues to increase its business support provided to members, with additional know-how sharing opportunities, free tools and an open communication network.

“Our association is committed to drive our members’ business forward and raise the industry standards, two objectives that govern our 2008 strategy and executive team selection. All board members, officers and collaborators are chosen based on their background and on their commitment to share knowledge of the industry and experience towards the advancement of try-before-you-buy software, as an alternative to conventional retail software”, says Mike Dulin, President of the ASP. “Most of them have been with ASP for a number of years and come with valuable insight on the shareware software industry”, adds Mike Dulin.

ASP has been raising software industry standards since 1987 by providing its members with useful, professional content and business know-how support. To implement the 2008 strategy, the ASP has elected 4 officers and 8 collaborators with relevant experience in running and caring for software commerce enterprises, including all of the following aspects: development, security, sales, software e-commerce, marketing, web marketing, public relations, affiliate marketing, customer service, event management, and sales consultancy for software authors.

The new ASP executive team, led by the managing board according to the established mission of upfront support to the try-before-you-buy market, is focusing on the following in 2008: quality content and resources development, providing ideas exchange opportunities with key speakers and within the ASP community, establishing mutually profitable relations between its members, and will offer free or discounted software which will help to grow more efficient and mature software businesses.

The newly apointed ASP officers and staff are Mike Dulin (President), Ed Pulliam (Vice President), Fred Clabuesch (Treasurer), Dennis Reinhardt (Secretary), and the valuable collaborators are Rich Holler (Executive Director), Don Waterfield (Technical webmaster), Jerry Stern (ASPects editor), Dexter Bell (Sergeant at Arms), Sheila Manning (Events Coordinator), Adriana Iordan (Marketing & Public Relations Manager), Oliver Grahl (PAD/PADGen Support), Andrei Belogortseff (ASP Downloads Site Manager).

To find out more about membership, volunteer, or sponsorship opportunities for the Association of Shareware Professionals please visit the association official web page: www.asp-shareware.org.

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Note for editors

ASP 2008 officers:

President Mike Dulin has been with ASP since 1997. He owns SharewareJunkies.com and NewestShareware.com newsletter and website. Among other things, he has interviewed many of the leaders of the shareware industry. Find out more on www.sharewareradio.com and www.sharewarejunkies.com.

Vice President Ed Pulliam, ASP member since 2000. He owns OUISoft and is specialized in software marketing, including affiliate marketing. Find out more on www.ouisoft.com.

Treasurer Fred Clabuesch, for the sixth year. He is the Safer Downloads Project Manager and the owner of SigmaTech Software. Find out more on www.sigma-tech.com.

Secretary Dennis Reinhardt, author of SpamAI and DialogDevil. He is the ASP’s contact on trademark registrations and he is also in charge with the ASP’s website which will soon be re-launched. Find out more on www.dair.com.

ASP 2008 collaborators:

Executive Director Rich Holler, a shareware author for almost 20 years and an ASP active member since 1991. He has worked with ZDNet for their Compuserve-based forums and their online customer service team and as sales representative for SimTel Bandwidth Services. Rich was also responsible for the original idea that resulted in the industry-standard PAD system.

Technical webmaster Don Waterfield, Senior Programmer and Analyst with Aqumix Inc. He has been in the industry for 12 years and owns Plan1Host.com, a hosting and on-demand programming company. Find out more on www.plan1host.com.

ASPects editor since 1997 Jerry Stern. He has provided computer consultancy for the past 17 years and he specializes in system configuration and security. He also runs two PAD download sites: www.softwarekb.com and www.wordperfect.org and a software blog at www.startupware.com.

Sergeant at Arms Dexter Bell first started programming in the late 70’s and has an extensive international background. He now runs The Utility Factory, the makers of FileBoss. Find out more on www.theutilityfactory.com.

Events Coordinator Sheila Manning has been involved with the ASP since 2003 as Welcome Committee Chair, Events Coordinator, Projects Coordinator, and Vice President.

Marketing & Manager Public Relations Adriana Iordan has over 5 years experience in online marketing. Currently Web marketing Manager at Avangate, an e-commerce provider for software authors, she specializes in internet marketing services and website analysis for the software industry. Find out more on www.avangate.com.

PAD/PADGen Support Oliver Grahl started his own software business in 1996 developing an application for online cost control, desktop utilities, an add-on for Outlook Express, the information manager SnippetCenter, and the PDF Annotator. Find out more on www.grahl-software.com

ASP Downloads Site Manager Andrei Belogortseff has been involved in the shareware industry for the past 16 years. He runs WinAbility Software Corporation, a producer of Windows utilities and security software. Find out more on www.winability.com.

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About ASP

Founded in 1987, the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) is an international organization with over 1200 members and is dedicated to promoting the understanding of shareware software industry through advocacy, standards, research and technology. It offers rich information on how to start and grow a software business, from development to marketing and customer service, as well as personalized advice. ASP also functions as a liaison between shareware authors, microISVs, beginners and leaders, distributors and marketers facilitating contacts and sharing experience. For more information on the Association of Shareware Professionals, please go to www.asp-shareware.org.

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For PR related information, please contact:
Adriana Iordan
Marketing & PR Manager
Association of Shareware Professionals
Phone: +31 20 890 8080
Email: publicrelations@asp-shareware.org

For membership related information, please contact:
Mike Dulin,
President of the ASP
president@asp-shareware.org

Association of Shareware Professionals
Website: www.asp-shareware.org.

Association Elects New Board Members, Officers
January 31, 2006

For Further Information Contact:
Ed Pulliam, public relations coordinator
Association of Shareware Professionals
313 South Harmony Drive
Janesville, WI USA 53545

Phone 877 479-4493
Email publicrelations@asp-shareware.org

The members of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) recently elected three people to their board of directors. Elected to their first term as Directors were Henk Devos, of Kortrijk, Belgium, and Brandon Staggs, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Returned for a second two year term to the board was Scott Swedorski.

Henk Devos - Henk Devos was born in Zwevegem, Belgium. He studied Computer Science at the University of Ghent. Henk previously worked for the Belgian companies dZine (Kortrijk) and Artwork Systems (Ghent).

Henk is the founder of Whirling Dervishes Software, a company that specializes in shell extension technology, and the brain behind Alpha ZIP, a file compression utility.

Henk also serves on the board of the European Shareware Conference and runs the shareware related web site SharewareBlogs.com.

Brandon Staggs - At the age of 19, Brandon Staggs started his software business with the release of Bible Assistant, a simple DOS program for searching the King James Bible. Over the next few years, Bible Assistant evolved into SwordSearcher and became a Windows application. SwordSearcher is now an extensive tool for Bible study and education, making millions of cross-references available to the Bible student in dozens of commentaries and dictionaries. SwordSearcher Bible Software is used by thousands of people to help study the Bible and is available at http://www.swordsearcher.com

Scott Swedorski - In 1993 Scott Swedorski noticed a growing interest in the phenomenon of the World Wide Web. At the time, there was very little information available about how to connect to the Internet and he felt that there was a real need for public access to Internet- related software. So, he created TUCOWS - an acronym for The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software - to provide the public with free downloadable software.

In 2002, Swedorski was awarded the SIC Lifetime Achievement Award for being a strong supporter of shareware authors and the shareware industry.

In 2004 he left Tucows to start a dual venture. The first was the creation of Promaxum.com - a software distribution and Consultation Company and the second was becoming VP of Software Development for CoffeeCup Software.

Mitchell Vincent was selected by the board to be Chairman of the Board. Mitchell is the founder and lead developer of K Software, developers of the popular kBilling software.

Officers appointed by the board include, President, Ed Pulliam of OUISoft; Vice President, Sheilla Manning of Grand River Software LLC; Secretary, Michael D Dulin of SharewareJunkies.com and Treasurer, Fred Clabuesch of SigmaTech Software.

The ASP is a not-for-profit association of over 1,400 independent software developers, marketers and vendors, most of whom use the try-before-you-buy method of software distribution. For more information on the ASP, visit our consumer information web site at http://asp-shareware.com/ .

ASP President creates Coordinator of Anti-Spyware Operations position
September 06, 2005

The President of the Association of Shareware Professionals, Jessica Dewell, has named Jerry Stern, to the newly created position of Coordinator of anti-spyware operations for the association. The new position will be responsible for drafting position papers and policy statements and coordinating anti-spyware efforts on behalf of the association.

Mr. Stern operates Science Translations Software, and also serves as the Editor of ASPects, the association's monthly newsletter. He has recently launched a new web site, SpySafety.com .

Prior to accepting the appointment to his new position, Mr. Stern had prepared and submitted written testimony to the US Federal Trade Commission's workshop on spyware, and recently submitted a response on behalf of the ASP to the Anti-Spyware Coalition.

Seven ASP Members Win SIC People's Choice Awards
August 01, 2005

Seven ASP members took home Peoples Choice Awards at SIC 2005 in Denver, Colorado, July 16th. The Shareware Industry Awards Foundations "People's Choice Awards" are voted on by the public. While the Shareware Industry Awards are determined based upon technical merits and other criteria, the People's Choice Awards are voted upon by the public at large, without restrictions.

ASP members winning People's Choice Awards were:
Best Overall Utility - WinZip by WinZip Computing, Inc.
Best Application - NoteTab Pro by Fookes Software
Best Sound Program or Utility - Blaze Media Pro by Mystik Media
Best Educational Program or Game - AceReader by StepWare, Inc.
Best Internet Communication - ICUII by Cybration, Inc.
Best Non-Action Game - Pretty Good Solitaire by Goodsol Development, Inc.
Simtel "Most Votes" - Registry First Aid by Rose City Software

A Quick Recap of SIC '05
August 01, 2005

The 2005 Shareware Industry Conference, held July 14 - 16, at the Denver Hyatt Tech Center, was a huge success as both a social and business event.

On the social side, thanks to the SIAF for the welcome Reception Wednesday night, including a very spicy dish that required an elevated level of beer consumption. Great food, great beer and a mechanical bull were the features of the Digital River reception Thursday night. Fortunately, no one got hurt this year (unless you count the bull riders' pride).

Friday noon was the ASP lunch. Attending volunteers were recognized for their service to the association. The fact that all volunteers were not called up and presented with certificates of appreciation at the lunch does not mean that the ASP values your service any less. The lack of a formal presentation was just the result of the number of volunteers that we have active in running the affairs of the ASP these days. "An hour lunch just doesn't provide enough time to make the presentations", said Sheila Manning, ASP Volunteer Coordinator.

Numerous door prizes were given out to those in attendance, and a grand prize drawing from among all volunteers (a Western Digital 320 GB USB external hard drive) was won by Brian Rassmusson.

Friday night was exhibit night, with more great food, and an open bar. I know that Fred Clabuesch signed up two new ASP members during exhibit night, and many of our members talked up membership to all that would listen.

After the exhibit hall closed, NotePage and Dr. File Finder sponsored a great Desert Buffet, and CoffeeCup Software hosted an unofficial off-site party at a local dance club.

Saturday noon, the ESC hosted their annual lunch. According to Rosemary West's blog at http://educationalsoftware.blogspot.com/ , the highlight of the lunch was their presentation of awards. The People's Choice award went to Adrian Ternouth of RecallPlus. The Award for Outstanding Achievement in Educational Software went to Kathy Salisbury of Pharos Games.

Saturday night was devoted to the annual SIAF Awards Banquet. The Shareware Industry Awards were conceived to honor the very best products produced using the shareware marketing model. 13 of the 19 winners (68%) are ASP members (shown with an asterix).

Best program/utility for PDAs was awarded to Google Mobile, by Google, Inc.
Best game action/arcade - Astrogeddon, ORT Software Best game - non action/arcade - NoLimits Roller Coaster Simulation, Mad Data
* Best server program/utility - Servers Alive, BVBA Woodstone
* Best web enhancement/utility - HTML Match, Salty Brine Software, Inc.
* Best Internet communications program - Feed For All, NotePage, Inc.
* Best Internet enhancement/utility - FTP Vowager, Rhino Software, Inc.
Best hobby/personal interest - PhotoMiz, fCoder Group, Inc.
* Best educational program or game - Cherokee Trails, Pharos Games Best business application/utility - Black Hole Organizer, Lincoln Beach Software
* Best vertical market program/utility - Help And Manual, EC Software
* Best sound program/utility - Microsoft Media Player, Microsoft Corporation Best utility using .Net - FILEhand Search, Filehand, LLC.
* Best application using .Net - Guitar and Drum Trainer 2, Renegade Minds
* Best photo program/utility - Images in Context!, Liquid Mirror Software
* Best desktop enhancement - Microangelo Creation, Eclipsit Corporation
* Best graphics program/utility - SnagIt, Techsmith
* Best application - UltraEdit, IDM Computer Solutions, Inc.
* Best overall utility - TuneUp Utilities 2004, TuneUp Software GmbH

Of course, the biggest business benefit to be obtained from attendance is the networking with other attendees and the knowledge gained from the presenters and panelists at the sessions. A total of 30 educational sessions were presented, and many commented that the quality of the presentations was better than ever. A highlight of this year's SIC was the participation of newly returned ASP member, Microsoft Corporation, who sent 4 representatives to the conference. Microsoft presented two sessions on Visual Studio 2005 for Independent Developers and Visual Studio Shareware Starter Kit. Just as important, the Microsoft representatives did a LOT of listening to what the attending developers had to say.

At the conclusion of this year's SIC, ASP President Jessica Dewell said, "The ASP thanks the SIAF board and volunteers for their tremendous effort in hosting this conference. We were proud to again be one of several sponsors of this year's event. I'd like to urge our members to make plans to be in Denver, Colorado at the Hyatt TechCenter from July 13-15, 2006 for another exciting Shareware Industry Conference".

Association of Shareware Professionals Inducts Three into Hall of Fame
July 25, 2005

At the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) lunch, held July 15, during the Shareware Industry Conference in Denver, CO., Jerry Stern, Chris Thornton and Steve Pavlina were inducted into the ASP Hall of Fame.

The ASP Hall of Fame was established in 2000. Some previous inductees include Jim Knopf (also known as Jim Button) and Bob Wallace, arguably the founders of the shareware marketing concept, as well as Phil Katz, founder of PKWARE, author of PKZip, Mike Callahan, also known as "Dr. File Finder", Marshall Magee, who started his company in 1983 with a product called Automenu; he became one of the first shareware authors to make more than $1 million dollars in sales. He was the founding ASP President. All ASP Hall of Fame members can be seen at http://asp-shareware.org/membership/asphof.asp .

Jerry Stern is a computer consultant and shareware developer. His current shareware titles include FileTiger and Graphcat.

Jerry joined the ASP in 1992, and has served the organization as editor of its monthly news magazine ASPects since 1997. He scanned all past issues of ASPects and published all back issues on CD and on the ASP members only web site, so that new members have full access to the ASP's history.

Chris Thornton established Thornton Software Solutions in 1991, later incorporating as Thornsoft Development, Inc. He is the author of the popular Clipmate Windows clipboard extender. Clipmate has won the SIAF best utility award three times. In 2004, Chris was inducted into the SIAF Shareware Hall Of fame.

Chris joined the ASP in 1992 and served as ASP Chairman of the Board in 1999 and 2000. During his term, the ASP purchased what became the PAD standard, and launched the popular standard for download sites. The ASP also launched its Hall of Fame during his term as chairman.

Steve Pavlina founded Dexterity Software in 1994 as a retail game developer. The company switched to direct Internet sales in 1999, with Dweeb and other titles. In 2005, Steve switched careers, and is starting a new business as a motivational speaker (StevePavlina.com).

Steve has had a profound effect on the growth of the ASP membership over the years. He has consistently urged new game developers to take advantage of the benefits of membership in the ASP. In 2004, Steve was a major source of new members, when he published an article on his web site, backed by an offer of a free copy of Dweeb to developers who joined the ASP.

The ASP is a not-for-profit association of over 1,300 independent software developers, marketers and vendors, most of whom use the try-before-you-buy method of software distribution. For more information on the ASP, visit their consumer information web site at http://asp-shareware.com/ or their developer web site at http://asp-shareware.org. ASP member programs can be found on our download site at http://downloads.asp-shareware.com .

Members Surveyed on ASP Member Benefits
April 15, 2005

In March. 2005, the ASP surveyed its members regarding the relative importance of some of the services that the association provides to its members. 380 members responded to the survey, representing a very respectable 28.5% of the total membership. Generally the results of this nonscientific poll seem to indicate that our members feel that the services offered by the ASP are important to the membership.

The ASP members only web site drew high marks, with 75% or respondents finding the site either very important or somewhat important.

When specific web based features were examined the results were mixed. The on-line archive of all issues of our monthly newsletter, ASPects, was rated very or somewhat important by 61% , while the online book reviews pages were rated very or somewhat important by 24%. New member information on the web site was rated very or somewhat important by 46%

The recent decision to step up the member offer program, which solicits and publicizes free or discount software and services, seems to have been well advised, as 68% of the respondents rated this program as important.

Two of the most important ASP programs appear to be the web based newsgroup access and search function, and continued development of the PAD family of products. The newsgroup web interface received a 62.4% very important rating, with an additional 22% finding it somewhat important. The PAD program received a 58.1% very important rating, with 19.8% finding it somewhat important.

Only members who had joined the ASP in the last year were asked about the importance of the new member greeting committee. Of those answering, 44% felt the committee's activity is either very important or somewhat important, while 20% found this program of little or no importance.

ASP President Jessica Dewell said that the ASP leadership will use the results of this and other member surveys in determining priorities for future member services.

2004 Nominations for the ASP Board of Directors
October 02, 2004

There are three board seats up for election. The terms of Gregg Seelhoff, Jean-Guy Ducreux, and Jury Gerasimov will be expiring at the end of the year. If you wish to nominate someone, yourself included, please send an email to the ASP Secretary (secretary@asp-shareware.org) by November 5th.

Please include: Nominee Name, Nominee Email address If you would like to nominate someone other than yourself, please make sure that the person you are nominating is genuinely interested in running for the board.

Each nominee will be asked to provide a campaign statement that will be posted in asp.members.official and in the members-only section of the web site on the Secretary's Desk page of the ASP web site. All campaign statements must be received by Friday November 5th and will be posted for member review.

Board members are required to check the boardroom daily, make recommendations, help direct the organization, and vote. If you would like the chance to give something back to the ASP and work with other dedicated individuals, it is strongly encouraged that you run for the board in the upcoming election.

Association of Shareware Professionals Announces Mid-term Leadership Realignments
August 09, 2004

Jessica Dewell, president of the Association of Shareware Professionals, has announced the realignment of several leadership positions in the organization.

Kathy Salisbury, of Pharos Games, has resigned her positions as vice president and volunteer coordinator. As a result, the board of directors has appointed Ed Pulliam, of OUISoft, as vice president. Pulliam also will continue as marketing chairman.

Sheila Manning, of Grand River Software, who has served as events coordinator and welcome committee chair, has been appointed by the president to be the new volunteer coordinator. Sheila will relinquish her chairmanship of the welcome committee.

Tom Guthery, of Flix Productions, a long time volunteer in the ASP, has been appointed the new welcome committee chair.

Jean-Guy Ducreux named to Board of Directors of Association of Shareware Professionals
April 12, 2004

Jean-Guy Ducreux of Metz, France, has been appointed by the board of directors of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) to complete the remainder of the term of Jessica Dewell, who recently resigned to assume the office of president of the association. Ducreux will serve the remainder of 2004.

Ducreux has been a member of the ASP since 1992, and has server previously on the ASP board. He also served on the first board of directors of the European Shareware Conference (ESWC). He is a frequent attendee at the Shareware Industry Conference (SIC).

Founder and former President of Editions WSKA, France, which retails software in 8 European countries, Ducreux sold his company in 2000. He currently develops anti-spam software under the Dewqs' Tribes banner. Dewqs offers four quality antispam applications (multilingual, one freeware) to thwart the flow of undesirable email on the user's desktop, all using the same dynamic link library engine. Dewqs received the Shareware Industry Award for Best Internet Enhancement at last year's SIC in Rochester, NY, as well as nearly two dozen 5-star awards all over the web.

Jessica Dewell appointed ASP president
February 20, 2004

Jessica Dewell, of Digital River, Inc. has been appointed president of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). Dewell replaces Dave Gjessing, who resigned recently for personal reasons.

Dewell is the founder of RegNow.com, and is currently Director of Shareware for Digital River, Inc. She was previously the chairman of the ASP board of directors, stepping down from that position to accept the presidency.

Dewell has frequently been invited to speak at software industry shows such as SIC, ESWC, ISDEF, regarding software marketing. She also serves as a board member for ESC, and is a past board member for ESWC.

The ASP is a not-for-profit association of over 1,000 independent software developers, marketers and vendors, most of whom use the try-before-you-buy method of software distribution. For more information on the ASP, visit our consumer information web site at http://asp-shareware.com/ .

Loren Brewer Appointed ASP Web Content Manager
February 18, 2004

Loren Brewer, of Glen Ellyn, IL, has been appointed the new ASP Web Content Manager, replacing Kathy Salisbury. Loren Brewer is the founder of Shareware Solutions, www.SharewareSolutions.com, developers of CalendarPro, txtPro, and similar applications.

Loren is a graduate of Elmhurst College with a Master's degree in computer network systems, and has worked as a programmer analyst for Reuters. He currently resides in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of Chicago, with his wife Kimberly.

Loren has been actively volunteering for the ASP during the past year as the Member Offer Coordinator, receiving and processing the offers, posting them in the members newsgroup and writing the monthly column for the associations magazine, ASPects.

ASP Continues Long-Term Commitment to Supporting PAD and PadGen
January 19, 2004

The Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) board of directors has appointed Oliver Grahl to the position of PAD Support and PADGen Maintenance manager.

The ASP created the Portable Application Description (PAD), which allows program authors to describe their products in detail, in a standard XML format that can be easily used by the Internet sites' webmasters. Along with the PAD standard, the ASP developed a library of PC software that makes it easy for authors, webmasters, and all interested parties to use PAD. PADGen, the flagship product of this collection of utilities, won the 2001 SIAF award for Best Overall Utility. PADGen is available for free from the ASP. The ASP maintains a repository of PAD files for members and non-members alike. There is also a PAD Support newsgroup available to developers and webmasters.

Oliver hails from the city of Landshut, which is near Munich, Germany. He published his first shareware program in 1996, while studying mechanical engineering. After completing his degree, Oliver went into the software business fulltime. His company, Oliver Grahl Software Design, designs shareware products for information management, online cost control, desktop utilities and an add-on for Outlook Express. The company also offers out-of-the-box products that can be customized for and licensed by the companies at a fixed price, as well as custom software development.

Oliver is also a longtime active member of the German equivalent of the ASP, which is SAVE (German Shareware Authors Association) which has about 1000 author members.

Oliver has been an active promoter of PAD within the SAVE community. He recognized that there was not very much interest in adapting the PAD standard at first, so Oliver offered a free localized tool to create PAD files for SAVE members.

He has also offered other free services to promote PAD, including a PAD based directory, sample code for PAD integration into download archives and the PAD Factsheets. Thanks to his efforts, today there are about two thousand PAD files from German vendors, as well as many software directories that support PAD.

Oliver says he looks forward to maintaining PadGen, planning to soon release an updated version that will support the current PAD specifications. Eric Peckham has already implemented the first beta version, and Oliver will be finishing up his work. Both Oliver and the ASP thank Eric Peckham for his prior work and support of PadGen.

For more information about PAD and PADGen, visit the ASP web site at http://www.asp-shareware.com/ or contact The Association of Shareware Professionals, 157-F Love Avenue, Greenwood IN 46142. Phone: (317) 888-2194 Fax: (317) 888-2195 E-mail: execdir@asp-shareware.org .

Association of Shareware Professionals

The World's #1 Trade Organization for Independent Software Developers and Vendors

ASP News and Announcements