Mike joined the ASP in December of 1997. Mike served as the ASP secretary and Sergeant-at-Arms from September 2003 to early in 2008, when he became the president of the ASP, as well as our Pad Support Liaison. Mike also represented the ASP at SIC, the European Software Conference, and ISDEF. Most recently, Mike represented the ASP at the Software Industry Conference in Dallas, where he hosted a panel on PAD, spoke at the ASP luncheon, and conducted interviews for his radio show.

Michael J. Marshall has been an ASP member since April 1, 1996. Almost all the time since he was a member, he has volunteered for the ASP. Since September 1997, he has been the ASP ombudsman. He has resolved numerous problems and worked together with the ASP board to find solutions when customers had problems with ASP members. During this time, Michael has also participated in the membership standards committee and helped in creating an up-to-date ombudsman policy. Michael has been in shareware for a long time. The flagship product of his company, King Stairs Software (www.kingstairs.com), is JOT+ Notes. Other products include myTasks, KS Calendar, HexHelper, KsXML and the brand new Scratchpad.

ASP Hall of Fame 2008 Inductee Jessica Dewell joined the ASP in June 1998. She was one of the founders of RegNow, an e-commerce company, for which she directed operations, development, customer service, and sales. RegNow was later acquired by Digital River, with whom Jess played a significant role. She was a Supporting Member of the ASP for many years, and became a Lifetime Member in 2004.

In December 1999, Jessica was appointed ASP Secretary, where she was instrumental in establishing the ASP Welcome Committee. This group of experienced members volunteers their time to contact brand-new ASP members to provide them with basic information about the organization and where to start benefiting from membership. This initiative was successful, and the Welcome Committee is still active today.

It was also during Jessica's time as ASP Secretary that she began writing the first of a series of member profile articles for ASPects, an idea that arose from the discussions about the Welcome Committee. She eventually went on to write more than fifty articles for ASPects on a variety of different topics. Jessica was nominated for a seat on the ASP Board of Directors, and in December 2000 she was elected as Director for 2001-2002, where she played a role in several significant changes to the organization. Near the end of her full year term, she nominated herself for another term and, again, was elected by the membership.

In January 2003, Jessica was selected to be the ASP Chairman of the Board. This was especially significant because this was during a time of uncertainty when the ASP needed strong leadership, and Jessica was willing to step up. She guided the ASP through the reincorporation process smoothly and successfully, and the ASP emerged stronger than ever.

Jessica served as Chairman of the Board until early February 2004, when she resigned to accept an appointment as ASP President. As she stated with her resignation note, she felt that it was important for the two positions to remain separated, and she used her time in each role to help establish the current ASP leadership distinction between policy and operations. Jessica continued to serve as ASP President through 2005. In addition to her efforts to benefit the ASP, Jessica was a Board member of the ESC (Educational Software Cooperative) for several years, and also served as its Editor.

This year, Jessica began volunteering for the ASP again, this time as the Website Content Manager, where she is working on the content of the web site, as well as taking a major role in determining a new appearance for the site.

ASP Hall of Fame 2008 Inductee Harold Holmes first joined the ASP in May 1992, with his company, Lincoln Beach Software. Since that time, he has been one of the more prolific programmers in the shareware industry, producing software for developers, webmasters, and consumers alike. He was also a Supporting Member of the ASP for several years, and wrote a dozen articles for ASPects.

Harold's first volunteer service for the ASP began in July 1992, when he joined the Author Membership Committee, on which he served through October 1993. This committee existed to review the products submitted by potential ASP members to determine if each met the criteria to be classified as "shareware", back when this was a requirement for membership.

In December 1997, Harold was nominated for a seat as an ASP Director, and he subsequently joined the 1998 Board of Directors. The first act of this new Board was to appoint him as Chairman of the Board, where he was responsible for several positive changes for the ASP. One of his early published opinions showed that he was already contemplating the limitations of the VendInfo system that was then used to describe products available for download. In late October 1998, Harold resigned from his positions as Director and Chairman of the Board to accept an appointment as ASP President. Less than two months later, he was also appointed to the role of ASP Webmaster. He used the dual roles to advance the online presentation and marketing of the ASP during his tenure. At SIC 2000, he was recognized with a plaque for his outstanding service to the ASP as its President and Webmaster.

For many years, Harold has served on the Board of Directors for the SIAF (Shareware Industry Awards Foundation), which in responsible for the Shareware (now Software) Industry Conference. In August 2000, he resigned as ASP President in order to concentrate on the following two SIC conferences in St. Louis, for which he was the local liaison. However, he continued to serve as ASP Webmaster through January 2002.

Harold attended the first several Shareware Schmoozes, in Columbus, Ohio. It was at the third Schmooze where he was approached by Rich Holler, who ran the ADDS file submission service, about the need for a better system to describe products that used shareware marketing. The two devised an improved solution, and Harold produced a prototype. They also quickly found that other authors were interested in the concept. By the middle of 1999, Harold's "DizGen99" product was coming to fruition, and at the same time, the ASP leadership was discussing a potential replacement for VendInfo. The two plans came together as an opportunity to benefit the entire shareware industry, and the ASP, upon a committee recommendation, purchased the product, renamed the system to PAD (Portable Application Description), and made it freely available to software developers. Harold continued to maintain and upgrade the PADGen program, and also became PAD's most vocal advocate.

Kent Briggs joined the ASP April 5, 1993 and immediately became involved in the ASP message board and newsgroups, where he is still active today.

In 2001, Kent helped develop the first PADGen EULA and was one of the three original authors of the PAD FAW website. In 2002, as chair of the Download Site Committee, Kent proposed and implemented the official PAD-enabled ASP download site. Ken also served as the download site maintainer from its inception in 2002 until December 2005.

After the ASP download site was completed in 2002, Kent made the souce code available to the ASP free of charge and it evolved into the first PADkit. PADkit continues to help download site operators integrate PAD support into their software repositories today.

Rob Rosenberger joined the ASP March 27, 1988, just before releasing his telephone analysis software. He quickly became active in the organization and by September of 1988 had developed a catalog of ASP products for posting on CompuServe. This project was adopted by the ASP and became known as the "ASP CIS Catalog." In August of 1989 Rob expanded this project to include BBS systems and the "ASP BBS Catalog" was born. Rob featured ASP-member products in his reviews written for Amateur Computing Magazine and the St. Louis Data Times.

Rob became a sysop for the ASP CompuServe forum in November 1989 and continued in that position until the ASP left CompuServe and started their own newsgroups in 1997. In 1990 Rob was elected to a board seat and served a full two-year term. Also, in 1990, Rob organized a project to develop a stamp with the ASP logo on it that members could use to highlight the ASP mailed packages from members. Quite a few members used the stand during the period disks were still being sent out. In 1991 Rob worked on the Vendor Welcoming Committee and was active in anti-virus work assigned to the ASP Virus Information Panel in March of 1992. A year later he joined and continued working with the ASP Publicity Committee.

In May 1993, Rob took the ASP Catalog compilation he had been maintaining since 1988 and published it as a 780-page book called The Shareware Compendium. This book advertised all ASP-member products in a national format.

Jerry joined the ASP in 1992 and took over as ASPects editor in 1997, a position he has held continuously to the present.

Jerry plays a central role in publishing ASPects on a demanding 12-issue per year schedule. He recruits authors, edits submissions, does the page layout, and secures the printing. He has scanned past issues and published the entire history of ASPects on CD and the ASP web site so that new members have full access to ASP history.

Beyond ASPects, Jerry is often key to insuring that seasonal activities within the ASP are started and completed on time. Jerry is not shy about expressing his opinion when something is (usually) a bad idea and will tell you why point for point. His opinions are based on long experience with ASP boards and are a valuable contribution and balance to members who serve with a shorter perspective.

Jerry has been self-employed for over 14 years as a computer consultant specializing in system configuration and security, ASPects editor, and shareware author. He has authored over 100 magazine articles and his current shareware titles are FileTiger and Graphcat.

Chris joined the ASP in 1992 and has served as board Chair in 1999 and 2000. During his term, the ASP purchased what is now known as PADGen and PAD. Six months after launch, there were 8 sites accepting PAD files. He established a committee to further popularize PAD so that today over 150 sites accept PAD and more are being created. Also during his term, the ASP Hall of Fame was created and the ASP is proud to induct the founder of the Hall of Fame into its ranks.

Chris has popularized the partial key verification method for protecting shareware registration integrity and has helped many authors with his timely and sound advice.

Chris created Thornton Software Solutions in 1991, later incorporated as Thornsoft Development Inc. He is author of the popular Clipmate Windows clipboard extender (thornsoft.com). Clipmate has won SIAF best utility award 3 times and in 2004, Chris was inducted into the SIAF Shareware Hall of Fame.

Steve Pavlina joined the ASP in 1996, served as Vice President in 1999 and President in 2000.

Steve has had a significant, lasting influence on others via his articles and postings. Steve is very goal-oriented and sets high standards for using his time. For example, while an undergraduate student, Steve set himself a goal of completing college in less than 4 years so that he could start his own software business. By taking 30-40 hours of class per semester, he graduated from college in 1.5 years, rather than the normal 4. He made time to do daily activities, get 8 hours of sleep, 1/2 hour of exercise and hold down a 40 hour/week full time job his final semester.

Steve has supported the ASP continuously by using his influence to recommend other independent game developers join the ASP. He was a major source of new members in 2004 when he published an article on his web site backed by a free copy of Dweep to developers who joined the ASP.

Steve founded Dexterity Software in 1994 as a retail game developer. Dexterity switched to direct over the internet sales in 1999 with Dweep and later follow-ons. In 2001, Dexterity published other author's games. In 2005, Steve switched careers from software publisher and is starting a new career as a motivational speaker (StevePavlina.com).

Richard Holler entered the world of shareware, freeware, and public domain software, as it was then called, at the end of the '80s. Though not a programmer himself, he became involved in online services via direct-dial Bulletin Board Systems, first through FidoNet, then Compuserve, SimTel, TopDownloads, ZDNet, and even AOL and MSN, managing both upload and forum support for himself and others. His unfaltering resolve for the cause of shareware led him to then start businesses in that field, to publish and promote try-before-you-buy software under the banners of RMH Computer Services and ADDS (Author Direct Distribution Services), always finding ways of making things easier for us all.

In the heydays of the BBSs, Rich recognized the need for a common denominator to the multiple file description formats available, otherwise known as information and submission packages. Richard Holler strove to expand the reach of the FILE_ID.DIZ (the extension of which stands for Description In Zip), a concept originally created by PCBoard; he was a strong supporter of VENDINFO.DIZ, and lastly he was the initiator of our now-famous PAD format, developed with the help of his friend Harold Holmes.

Rich became an ASP member in 1991. His professional and passionate nature led him to rapidly become the embodiment of shareware at large, and ASP in particular. With us he was successively BBS Membership Chairman, Vice President; he served on the Author Compliance Committee, and on the Board of Directors for a two-year term. Rich has been working as the ASP Executive Director since 1997.

Dan Veaner is one of the most respected individuals in the shareware industry. Dan founded his company, EmmaSoft, in 1989 and joined the Association of Shareware Professionals in July of the following year.

Within six months, he was making contributions to ASPects, and his first feature article appeared in the April 1992 issue. Since that time, Dan has been one of the most prolific contributors to ASPects, writing dozens of articles over several years. His contributions included book reviews, "Dan Veaner's Resources," many practical articles on issues affecting shareware authors, and most famously (or notoriously), his trade show and schmooze reports.

Dan Veaner joined the ASP Meetings Committee in March 1992 and served on the ASP Trade Show Committee from its inception in 1994. The latter role led to Dan being appointed Trade Show Coordinator. In these positions, Dan planned and coordinated the annual ASP meeting in Las Vegas in connection with Comdex, as well as ASP participation in the Summer Shareware Seminar (SSS, now SIC) each year. He was presented with the "ASP Outstanding Service Award" for his service to the ASP at Comdex. His trade show involvement still includes his current seat on the Board of SIAF, which holds SIC each year. Dan also continued this outreach less formally with his participation each year in the Columbus Shareware Schmooze. At the second annual Schmooze, Dan's peers, in the Independent Shareware Community Awards, recognized him as the Unsung Hero of Shareware.

In addition to his service in print and in person, Dan Veaner is also responsible for helping to bring shareware to the forefront online. In June 1996, after half a year of planning, "ASP Dan" began hosting the Association of Shareware Professionals forum on America Online. As forum leader, he helped bring the shareware concept to consumers while providing marketing opportunities to ASP members. This was a substantial undertaking, the true impact of which cannot be measured.

Throughout his many years of service to the ASP and the shareware community in general, Dan has earned the respect of those of us who have had the opportunity to enjoy his wit and learn from his wisdom. 

What drives Rosemary? "My imagination. I have so many more ideas than I'll ever have time to carry out, but trying to bring as many of them to life as I can is what keeps me going."

Since her first shareware registration, Rosemary has been an active contributor to the shareware community. She was on the ASP board for two terms, from 1992 to early in 1996. She stepped down after two terms as a firm believer that new people and ideas are needed in any organization's board and committees to encourage flow, participation, and new twists on old ideas.

When disk vendors were an integral part of the ASP, she chaired the Vendor Compliance Committee that created ASP?s rules and regulations. She also helped out with the booth at Comdex and wrote articles for ASPects.

The ESC (Educational Software Cooperative) was founded by Andy Motes to focus specifically on software for education. At the time the group was founded, the ASP was geared more towards games and gaming so the ESC was a great opportunity for educational authors to come together and share ideas solely for their niche software.

Rosemary has held all of the positions in the ESC over the years. She started as vice president and then became president and held that position for many years. She was a board member, and filled in as secretary and newsletter editor too. She has always been, and still is, the Webmaster for the ESC.

Rosemary's received much recognition in this industry: an honorary member of the ASP, ESC Member of the Month, a member of the Association For Professional Standards, and she's also been inducted to SIC's Hall of Fame.

Tom is an excellent example of what it truly means to be a "member" of the shareware community. Tom created Flix Productions in 1990 and began to produce high-quality, animated educational programs for DOS and then for Windows. A master animator, he creates outstanding educational software programs for kids of all ages.

Since becoming an ASP member in 1995, Tom Guthery actively participates in the ASP with as much time as he has to give. In addition to volunteering in different capacities over the years, he also dedicates time and energy to the graphical side of things -- his specialty -- for the ASP. Tom created the logos you see on the website available to download, and he reworked the logos and graphics used in the ASP?s exhibit booth. Tom served on the board 1996-1999, and accepted the role of Chairman in 1997. He?s also served in several other capacities for the ASP as Sergeant at Arms, on the Welcome Committee, and the Public Relations Committee.

Tom has impacted the entire shareware community with his down-to earth spirit that everything happens for a reason. He's received much recognition outside of the ASP, including receiving Ziff-Davis Shareware Awards, receiving Shareware Industry Awards, being inducted into the SIC Hall of Fame in 2001, and being a member of the Association For Professional Standards, and is on the Board of the Educational Software Cooperative.

Marshall Magee 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. This DOS-based program was very good and was released at the right time as the first of its kind. Magee still supports and sells Automenu.

He was the founding ASP President. In 1987 he met with other top shareware developers of the time at the Houston Area League of PC Users, including Bob Wallace, Tom Smith, Jim Button, and Nelson Ford, where the ASP was born.

His successes continued with a meeting of the minds in 1990. During Fall Comdex, he had a party where many shareware authors and enthusiasts gathered; he met with Bob Ostrander, Paris Karahalios, Randy MacLean, Jim Perkins, and Michael Callahan. These guys discussed creating a Shareware-focused conference separate from Comdex, and the seed was planted. In 1991, the first SSS (Summer Shareware Seminar) was held.

Gary Elfring, president and founder of Elfring Fonts, has been in business since 1979. The company produces retail, custom, shareware, and OEM font products.

Gary participates in the ASP newsgroups and has written several ASPects articles. Dedicating hundreds and hundreds of hours to the ASP over the years, his volunteer positions include: researching associate memberships for BBS's (1989); Chairman of the Board (1992); ASP Board member (1992-1993); the Trade Show Committee (1990-1994) where he coordinated and manned the ASP booth at several conferences, and the Vendor Compliance Committee (1994). He regularly donates prizes to conference events.

Today, Gary is still active in the ASP and is on the Board of Directors for the SIAF (Shareware Industry Awards Foundation) that hosts the Shareware Industry Conference and the ISCF (International Shareware Conference Foundation) that hosts the European Shareware Conference.

Barry Simon took the idea that arose out of a shareware meeting and dedicated time and energy to propel the idea of the ASP forward. Barry provided the skills and energy to get people like Jim Button, Don Watkins, Nelson Ford, and Tom Simondi involved so that the ASP would have the credibility and support of established companies, to encourage communication between members, and to have the talent to make everything move forward and be put into place. His was the guiding vision that a trade association made up of such disparate minds and geographical locations could actually accomplish something. Then he, through lots of time and energy, kept the ASP moving along by doing most of the actual promotion during the first few years.

In his side job as a writer for Ziff Davis, he wrote many articles spotlighting shareware products for PC Magazine and included shareware prominently in books such as "CD-MOM: The Mother of All Windows Books" ("requires Windows 3.1 running in 386 Enhanced mode; mouse highly recommended," co-written by ASP member Woody Leonhard).

In his spare time he had a full-time job as IBM Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and Department Chair for Mathematics (now Executive Officer for Mathematics) at Caltech and was a winner of the gold medal of the International Association of Molecular Science for work related to quantum chemistry. In this role he wrote other books such as "The Statistical Mechanics of Lattice Gases."

Official Capacities: Board (September 1987-January 1992) (Chair in 1991); President (March 1989-June 1990)

While hosting the first "Meeting of Shareware Authors" in February of 1987 in Houston, Texas, the idea for the Association of Shareware Professionals was born. The best way to set a date and a place was to hold this meeting in conjunction with an area computer industry meeting (HAL-PC or the Houston Area League meeting). Many "old-timers" (this is an affectionate term coined for those people that have been around for many, many years) attended and were enthusiastic about the "Meeting of Shareware Authors." Included in attendance were Barry Simon and Tom Simondi. Most of the business was conducted and new business deals created in the restaurant, in the bar, and between formal gatherings. This is still the majority of ways that new friends and business contacts are made as well as bringing in new business relationships!

The very first version of the Shareware Guide: "How to Start/Survive in Shareware" was one of Nelson's contributions to the ASP. Being the founder of PsL, short for "Public (software) Library," Nelson created the guide to assist his business relationships with PsL clients, but because of the impact that it could have and the help that it could bring to ASP members, it was given to the ASP for the organization to use.

In the early nineties, Randy MacLean had an idea for mailing multiple software titles on disks to individuals and companies that subscribed. Nelson expanded on this idea and created a monthly feature of software titles sent out on floppy disks. That project grew into many large boxes of disks to be mailed each month.

Official Capacities: Board member (September 1987-January 1991) and again (March 1997-December 1997). Treasurer (August 1991-December 1997)

He started out in this industry before shareware, when the concept was known as "User Supported Software." PC-SIG deemed Tom a featured author in the late eighties; he was invited to the HAL-PC meeting in Houston, Texas. When he arrived, he had no idea that by the time he left he would be playing a major role in creating and supporting the Association of Shareware Professionals!

Tom has continued to provide a presence in the ASP board room and is the primary librarian of the Shareware Guide, and he is very intuitive about the membership and their needs and expectations. He has acted as historian on many occasions, filling in the blanks on conversations about historic conversations. In addition to all of this, Tom is very knowledgeable about the Bylaws.

Everyone appreciates the work that Tom has done for the ASP. He usually takes a back seat, not preferring the lime-light. Tom still is actively involved with the day-to-day efforts in serving the ASP as well as being an integral part of the behind-the-scenes force that continues to drive the ASP forward.

Official Capacities: Secretary (January 1990 - February 1992), Started ASPects, and remained editor for four volumes (Vol 1 #1- Vol 4 #9, from 1988 through 1991), sat on the Virus Advisory Committee and the Education Committee.

Phil Katz
(1962-2000)

Phil Katz founded PKWARE in 1986 with PKZIP, a compression tool for computer users. Back then, the primary compression tool was known as ARC. Phil was 23 years old and created an alternative to the ARC format, called ZIP. PKZIP was PKWARE's response to the compression needs of the computer market. PKZIP not only introduced the .ZIP file format to the public for the first time; it also brought a reliable alternative to the compression utilities on the market in the late 1980's. The speed and amount of compression, flexibility, robustness, and reliability PKZIP possessed all helped many Bulletin Board System Operators decide to convert their compressed archives to the ZIP file format virtually overnight. Another big reason for the success of PKZIP was the decision by PKWARE to dedicate the ZIP file format specification and .ZIP file extension name to the public domain. Phil greatly supported the shareware industry and was one of the first members of ASP.

Jim Knopf

In 1981, the concept of computer shareware was co-invented by Jim Knopf (also known as Jim Button) and shareware became popular. He had written PC-File. Knopf was working for IBM when he wrote a mailing-label program for the Apple II. He sold his Apple II for an IBM PC in 1981, thinking he could do better on the new platform. As the program required more and more support and debugging, Knopf came up with the idea of "requesting" $10 for people to get on his mailing list for updates and some support. The request was added to a file on the program disk, and shareware was born. He used the name Jim Button because he thought it was a better name than Knopf (In fact, "Knopf" is German for "button"). By 1983, sacks full of mail (literally) were arriving. Button was forced to quit his IBM job to keep up with the growing demand. The business boomed, and in 1987, he was selling 10 different programs to a million customers through 18 employees. Soon that number grew to 35, as sales peaked at $4.5 million. Knopf is now officially retired.

Bob Ostrander

Bob Ostrander founded Public Brand Software (PBS) in 1985. PBS was the largest disk vendor at the time, and sold shareware disks at shows and through direct catalog mailings. It was sold to Ziff Davis Interactive in 1991, becoming the basis of ZiffNet on Compuserve and Prodigy and on ZD Net's web site. Bob hosted the first four Summer Shareware Seminars in Indianapolis, which eventually turned into the Shareware Industry Conference.

Bob has served the ASP as a board member and president during the early 90's (sometimes at the same time), and then as ASP Secretary in 1993. Then, we managed to bring him "out of retirement" to again serve a second term as ASP president during some very trying times in 1997-1998. The ASPects archives contain many great articles from Bob during that time.

More recently, Bob has been involved in designing golfing websites, and an online magazine called the "DVD Insider," where he foretold the inevitable doom of DIVX. He still makes appearances now and then at shareware events, sometimes bringing his famous "potato gun."

Paul Mayer

Paul Mayer has been creating Freeware and Shareware since the 1970's and has been a full time shareware author since 1991. He started in shareware before it was known as shareware. He was a computer hobbyist who built his first computer from a Heathkit H-8 computer kit. Paul wrote a number of Freeware programs in the 1970's for Heathkit computers. He then joined the ASP shortly after it was formed and became the second Author Membership Chairman. During the following years, he was responsible for reviewing all new ASP applicants (back in the days when ASP reviewed members' software before they could join). When the ASP started accepting shareware vendors for membership, he later became the first Vendor Member Compliance Chairman.

After building the new position, Paul was elected to the ASP Board of Directors and a year later, elected as President. Paul is presently the forum manager of the Shareware Forum on the Microsoft Network, and President of ZPAY Payroll Systems, which markets its products through Shareware. Paul is also a Freelance Web Designer who's designed pages for the Microsoft Network, the Government, and many other clients around the world.

As one of the founders of the shareware concept, Bob Wallace has played an important role in the development of shareware concept. Bob admits to being allergic to taking orders from someone else. So in early 1983, Bob, who had just left Microsoft, started his own company, QuickSoft. Wallace had written a basic word processing program called PC-WRITE. Wallace started referring to his product as "shareware." Wallace stated, in an interview with Michael Callahan, that "My philosophy is that I want to make a living, not a killing."

In 1984, a contest was held to settle on a name for this new distribution method. The most popular choice was "shareware," which Bob Wallace was already using to describe PC-Write.

In early 1987, Bob attended the pivotal Houston conference of virtually all of the top shareware programmers in those days. From that meeting, the Association of Shareware Professionals was formed.

At its peak, QuickSoft employed over 30 people and did over $2 million a year in business, with over 45,000 registered users. Wallace has retired from the shareware business, but PC-Write continues to be sold by another company.

Mike Callahan

Mike Callahan, also known as Dr. File Finder, was the editor of Shareware Magazine, and both in that role and in later projects, tested and reviewed thousands of programs during his career. Established as a one-man PR agency, Doc helped developers promote their software, and produced a number of books and guides about the world of shareware.