Howard R. Sobel

Chairman, Association of Software Professionals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Howard R. Sobel

Chairman, Association of Software Professionals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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For the last 8 years, I served as Chairman of the Association of Software Professionals, asp-software.org until it dissolved on December 31, 2021. I am currently an independent contractor working in Cybersecurity Security Awareness Training editorial research and managing communities interested in social engineering. My current and past clients include several public companies.

In 1990, I cofounded WUGNET (The Windows User Group Network- WUGNET) which was one of the world's premier online global peer to peer support communities managing. In the early 1990's we managed Microsoft Support on CompuServe and the over 500 support forums for technology and software companies.

We also published the "Windows Journal" subscribed to by IT departments all over the world including Microsoft. In 1995, we sold Windows Journal to PC World and took over the job of supporting Microsoft's worldwide customers when they moved PSS to the Internet. We created and licensed special software to explore the Windows Registry called "Systems Engineer". The tool was licensed to all Microsoft field engineers. We sold code that made up portions of Norton Anti-Virus, IBM Prodigy, Quarterdeck registry utilities, and many other software products. In addition to taking over Microsoft's official peer to peer support on CompuServe in 1995 for its 2,000,000+ members when it moved support to the internet. As one of CompuServe largest business partners, we provided online support to CompuServe (AOL) users and for a period published the CompuServe member newsletter. AOL's/Verizon/Yahoo/ CompuServe's forums closed on Dec 15, 2017, after over 30 years of computing support and distribution of software for developers.

We published three books in the "Secrets" imprint with IDG (now Wiley Books), Windows Configuration Secrets, Windows Connectivity Secrets, and Internet Gizmos for Windows.

The WUGNET web site was a major distribution site for the best software downloads and hosted the Microsoft/WUGNET Software Pick of the Week (SPOW). Each month, working with Microsoft newsletter and site groups, I selected a third-party developer for promotion in the Microsoft Exploring Windows newsletter and on Microsoft's download portal. The program ended with the rollout of Windows 7.

  • Work
  • Education
    • M.Ed, Villanova University