Announcing the Launch of the International SharePoint Professionals Association
July 16, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Distribution
International SharePoint Professionals Association Official Launch
Colts Neck, New Jersey, USA
July 16, 2008
Today marks the official launch of the International SharePoint Professionals Association (ISPA), an independent, not-for-profit, community-driven organization dedicated to supporting SharePoint professionals and communities around the world. The primary mission of the ISPA is to promote the global adoption of SharePoint Technologies by providing support and guidance to the SharePoint community as a whole – by establishing connections between SharePoint professionals, groups, resources, education and information. ISPA is led and supported by volunteers across the world, and will focus on bringing the entire SharePoint community closer together.
The ISPA’s first offering to the community will be free Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) web sites for any group that becomes affiliated with the organization. The ISPA will also be providing user group leaders with access to collaborative spaces where they can interact with other community leaders, exchange ideas, and share resources, best practices, and guidance as part of its ongong initiative to facilitate an exchange of ideas within the overall community.
The ISPA has also established Regional Evangelists – existing community leaders who have previously exhibited a strong commitment to the promotion of the SharePoint community - who have pledged to promote the ISPA vision throughout their particular region. These evangelists are key local contacts who are available to work with local SharePoint professionals and user groups throughout their region to help promote the community and SharePoint. At present, more than fifty evangelists are in place in over 19 countries throughout the world and this number will grow as additional resources become available.
"I’m happy to announce the launch of the ISPA. A lot of time and effort has been put into bringing this online and we hope as this grows we will have an abundance of offerings for the SharePoint Community," said Bob Fox, Microsoft MVP (SharePoint) and ISPA Board member.
Darrin Bishop, founding member of the ISPA and also a SharePoint MVP, is equally enthusiastic about the launch.
"Effectively, we want to help support and connect SharePoint professionals and community organizations," he stated. "Our initial focus is to gather all SharePoint user groups into the ISPA and give them greater visibility. We will also be providing value-added services to member groups, such as free web sites and local representation via a global network of regional evangelists. We also are looking at ways to increase user group attendees, quality of sessions, supporting new and old speakers and more."
The ISPA Board of Directors is comprised of the following individuals who have demonstrated a deep committment to the greater SharePoint community:
Natalya Voskresenskaya, SharePoint Architect, EMC
Bob Fox, Microsoft MVP (Windows SharePoint Services)
Darrin Bishop, Microsoft MVP (Windows SharePoint Services)
Christopher Regan, Managing Partner, B&R Business Solutions
Spencer Harbar, Microsoft MVP (SharePoint Server)
About the Internation SharePoint Professionals Association
The International SharePoint Professionals Association (ISPA) is an independent, not-for-profit, community-driven organization dedicated to supporting SharePoint professionals and groups around the world. The primary mission of the ISPA is to promote the global adoption of SharePoint Technologies by providing support and guidance to the SharePoint community as a whole – by establishing connections between SharePoint professionals, groups, resources, education and information.
For more information, contact the ISPA at contactus [at] sharepointpros [dot] org or visit www.sharepointpros.org