A History of the Software Industry Conference, the Shareware Industry Awards, and the SIAF

At Fall Comdex in 1990, Marshall Magee, a successful shareware author, was having a get-together for shareware authors. There were lots of people there, sitting at tables, eating food, and sharing information. Shareware authors were sitting around talking about disk prices, what they paid for manuals, sharing coding tips, and so on.

Seated at one of the tables was Bob Ostrander, head of Public Brand Software; Michael Callahan, known as Dr. File Finder; Paris Karahalios, head of Trius, Inc.; Randy MacLean, head of FormGen, and Jim Perkins, FormGen's head of marketing. The five friends were watching what was going on at the other tables, and started talking about it. They all agreed that it would be great if there could be a conference that was just for shareware authors, without all the complexity that was involved with Comdex. A conference where shareware authors could share information with each other.

In the spring of 1991, Bob Ostrander announced that he was going to host a shareware conference in Indianapolis that June, billed as the "Summer Shareware Seminar", or SSS. Public Brand Software sponsored the event which had around 100 attendees.

The Shareware Industry Awards were conceived by Michael Callahan aka Dr. File Finder at the time of the first shareware conference - as a means to focus attention on the shareware industry. Michael felt that while the conference would help shareware authors in general, an awards ceremony "like the Academy Awards" would benefit the shareware industry as a whole. He discussed the concept with Randy MacLean and Randy immediately liked the idea of the awards. As these things often go, they dragged in Bob Ostrander, Paris Karahalios, and Jim Perkins, and discussed the idea.

The five friends decided to create a private corporation called the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation (SIAF). This was done to protect the SIA logo and to give the foundation some legal stability. To also insure both stability and continuity, the co-founders decided they would run the awards for at least the first three years, if not longer. They also decided that once they had the event established they would be able to gradually bring in new people. New members of the SIAF board are selected by the existing board members. And, because the events focused on shareware, the founders decided that the board would always be made up of shareware authors.

The five founders of the SIAF worked out all the details for the awards dinner, the entertainment, the design of the awards, how voting would be handled, and much more. A little known fact is that most of the discussion took place in a private conference on CompuServe. The first Shareware Industry Awards occurred during the second shareware conference, SSS, held in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1992. It was felt that the best time to have the Shareware Industry Awards was in conjunction with the shareware conference. At that point, however, they were totally separate events and separately sponsored. PBS handled the shareware conference, while the SIAF handled the Shareware Industry Awards through contributions from shareware companies.

When Ziff-Davis purchased Public Brand Software from Bob Ostrander, there was some disagreement over who had ownership of the "Summer Shareware Seminar". In 1994, the SIAF took over the planning and implementation of the shareware conference, which was then named the "Shareware Industry Conference" to show the connection to the awards and the foundation. ZD and the SIAF resolved their differences and the annual ZDNet shareware awards were an integral part of the Shareware Industry Conference from their inception through the 2000 conference.

One goal of the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation is to keep making the event better each year. To constantly improve by paying close attention to the input of those in the shareware community. After the Shareware Industry Awards of 1994, the SIAF founders decided it was time to bring in some new people. As needed, from that time on, the SIAF board has asked others to participate on the SIAF board so it continues to have new people and new ideas. Prospective board members are selected by the current board based on their work ethic, personality, participation in the shareware community, and so on.

As new people began to come onto the SIAF board, some of the founders began to "retire" from active participation. Previous board members of the SIAF are given the title "Board Member Emeritus" which allows them to have access to the private SIAF newsgroup if they wish and they can participate in discussions if they like. They do not, however, have a vote. By 1996, four of the original five founders had retired from the board. Then, in 2001, Paris Karahalios, one of the founders, returned to the SIAF board. As of 2003, Michael E. Callahan aka Dr. File Finder, is the only founding member to be continuously active on the SIAF board. Because of this fact the board gave Mr. Callahan the position of SIAF Chairman of the Board in 1998.

The goal of the SIAF is to have an event that focuses attention on the shareware industry, its people, and the many fine products that come from it. The conference and the awards have grown dramatically since those early days. The SIAF has constantly strived to make the conference better, to make the sessions pertinent, and to make the awards reflect trends in the software industry. In addition to the Shareware Industry Awards, the SIAF has created the Shareware Hall of Fame, the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation People's Choice Awards, and the Shareware Industry Award for Lifetime Achievement. Each year the SIAF bestows over 30 awards to deserving products, and people. With the help of dedicated people, and sponsors, the SIAF will continue to move the SIC and SIA well into this new millennium.