In case you haven’t heard, the Association of Shareware Professionals has changed its name to the Association of Software Professionals.
For more information on the name change, read Shareware is dead – long live shareware!
Shareware, essentially try-before-you-buy, is alive and well today. Almost any software in distribution offers a demo these days. Decades ago, shareware was revolutionary as a concept, but it was a great way to get your software in front of potential customers. In a time when the most people could expect was a brochure or ad, being able to actually USE the software before you paid for it helped spread software to a wider audience.
Unfortunately, as time went on, there was a negative association between “shareware” and “amateur”, or “freeware”, or “crippleware”.
That isn’t to say that the ASP isn’t still a useful organization. Shareware was always about marketing, and marketing changes. Getting assistance, information, and business advice from a professional organization? That’s a constant.