Most downloaded files: Sixty files in PDF format are available at the Kearneysville Web Site.  Most of these are pdf versions of the disease fact sheets. The Virginia Home Orchard Management Guide was downloaded 3,930 times. A Plant Disease Feature Article on the use of the World Wide Web in extension plant pathology was downloaded 313 times (Biggs and Grove, 1998 (pdf download 1.6 Mb file)), followed by the Apple Crop Profile (159) and the Fire Blight fact sheet (140).

Most active organizations: America Online (aol.com) was the most active organization with 23,006 user sessions during the past 11 months (1 November - 30 September). This represents almost 25% of the total activity at the KTFREC Web site.  Other organizations rank far behind AOL, and include Digital Equipment Corp. (dec.net), followed by The West Virginia Network for Educational Telecomputing (WVNET), West Virginia University, WebExpress, and Uunet Technologies, Inc. (uu.net). Other active organizations included Virginia Tech (vt.edu), AT&T Easylink Services (att.net), Erols (erols.com), Splitrock Internet Services (splitrock.net), Information Avenue Internet Services (infoave.net), Netcom Online Services (netcom.com), IBM Corporation (ibm.net), Televar Northwest (televar.com), Washington State University (wsu.edu), Cornell University Network Resources (cornell.edu), University of Minnesota (umn.edu), University of Maryland (umd.edu), and Michigan State University (msu.edu).

Seven different types of organizations, based on the domain name suffix, visited the web site. Organizations designated as companies (.com) had the most user sessions (65.5%, up from 57.1% in 1998), followed by network sites (.net) (23.5%, down from 24.1% in 1998), and educational institutions (.edu) (9.3 %, down from 16.4% in 1998).  Other organizations included organizations (.org) ( 0.7%), government (.gov) (0.7%), military (.mil) (0.3%), and arpanet (.arp) (0.01%).  Increased use of the KTFREC Web site is due mostly to increased use by .com and .net organizations.  

Most active countries: The Kearneysville Tree Fruit Web Site was visited by individuals from 107 countries during the past year (Table 4). Sixty-six percent of visitors were from the United States, 14% were international, and 20% could not be determined. The countries most frequently visiting, after the U.S., with 64,972 user sessions, were Canada (3,637), UK (1,214), Australia (1,109), Germany (661), Netherlands (513), Italy (469), and France (318).

Most active North American states and provinces: The Kearneysville web site was visited by individuals from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 9 Canadian provinces (Table 5). The most user sessions originated from Virginia (46.9%, America Online), California (20.6%, Digital Equipment Corp. and Excite, Inc.), and West Virginia (4.1%). Other top ranking states and provinces included, in descending order, British Columbia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Jersey, Georgia, Oregon, and Michigan (Table 5). Most active states and provinces are determined by where the domain name of the visitor's ISP is registered, and may not always be an accurate representation of the geographic location of the visitor.

Most active cities: The most active city was Vienna, Va., followed by Palo Alto, Ca., Mountain View, Ca., Morgantown, W.Va., Golden Valley, Minn., Winchester, Va., Lincroft, N.J.,  Pittsburgh, Pa., Falls Church, Va., and Atlanta, Ga.  As with states and provinces, most active cities is determined by where the domain name of the visitor's ISP is registered, and may not always be an accurate representation of the geographic location of the visitor.

Conclusions: Use of the web site has grown in 1999, approximately double that in 1998. The web site is being used by commercial orchardists locally and nationally, professional orchard consultants, university fruit extension specialists and research and teaching faculty, regional and county agricultural extension agents, master gardeners, and home orchardists. The web site is being used for university teaching at the associate, undergraduate, and graduate levels. 

Acknowledgement of contributors to the Kearneysville Tree Fruit Web Site: Entomology material prepared by H. W. Hogmire, plant nutrition material prepared by S. S. Miller, plant pathology material provided by A. R. Biggs, A. L. Jones, W. Janisiewicz, P. W. Steiner, T. B. Sutton, W. F. Wilcox, and K. S. Yoder. Original content in plant pathology was based on the Mid-Atlantic Orchard Monitoring Guide, NRAES, 1995 (contributors listed here). The disease key was based on that published by Schwarz and Burr, 1984, and revised to include major diseases of the mid-Atlantic region. Most of the original Monitoring Guide articles have been revised, edited, and supplemented with new material provided by A. R. Biggs, A. L. Jones, P. W. Steiner, T. B. Sutton, W. F. Wilcox, and K. S. Yoder.

Table 1. Glossary of terms used in this presentation.

Table 2. Total page views and user sessions for the Kearneysville Tree Fruit Web Site for the period from October 1, 1998, through September 30, 1999.

^z Based on WebTrends analysis.

Table 3. Comparison of the top 50 requested pages from 1 October, 1998, through 30 September, 1999, based on WebTrends analysis of server log files

* = not available in 1998
** = not ranked in top 50 1998

Table 4. The top 50 countries visiting the Kearneysville web site from 1 October, 1998, through 30 September, 1999, based on WebTrends analysis of server log files

*1998 data are from 7 May through 7 October, 1998.

Table 5. The top 50 North American states and provinces visiting the Kearneysville web site from 1 October, 1998, through 30 September, 1999, based on WebTrends analysis of server log files

Copyright Alan R. Biggs, 1999.