THE WVU TREE FRUIT WEB SITE: EVOLUTION AND STATISTICS

Alan R. Biggs, West Virginia University, University Experiment Farm, P.O. Box 609, Kearneysville, WV 25430

(presented at the 1997 Cumberland-Shenandoah Fruit Worker's Conference, Winchester, Va., November 20, 1997)

Information on research and extension programs at the West Virginia University Experiment Farm in Kearneysville has been available on the Internet for one year. The purpose of this presentation is to review the first year of activity at the WVU Fruit Web Site, describe the additions to the site since it was published in November, 1996, and suggest some criteria for integration of fruit Web sites in the mid-Atlantic region. Integration of regional Web services should improve electronic information delivery to growers and consultants.

Background: The West Virginia University Experiment Farm at Kearneysville Web Site was published in November, 1996. Originally included at the site were: 1) the plant pathology information (text and photographs) from the Mid-Atlantic Orchard Monitoring Guide, 2) a diagnostic key to apple and peach diseases in the mid-Atlantic region, and 3) links to the Virginia Tech Fruit Page for entomological information.

At its inception, the Kearneysville Web site was laid out on eight pages as described in last year's presentation at this meeting. Briefly, those pages were (and still are, unless indicated):

1) wvufarm1.html (Home Page) presents the main menu of choices for visitors to the site.
2) wvufarm2.html (About Us) contains text and photographs on the location and description of the WVU Experiment Farm.
3) wvufarm3.html (Programs and Personnel) was the Faculty and Staff page with e-mail links to the WVU faculty located at Kearneysville. This page has been removed and replaced with specific discipline pages (see below).
4) wvufarm4.html (Publications) has links to issues of The Orchard Monitor newsletter, descriptions and purchasing information for the Mid-Atlantic Orchard Monitoring Guide, and Virginia-West Virginia-Maryland Spray Bulletin for Commercial Tree Fruit Growers.
5) wvufarm5.html (Key/Fruit Pests) is under development and not available at this time.
6) wvufarm6.html (Key/Fruit Diseases) is a Diagnostic Key to Apple and Peach Diseases and disorders. The key is not exhaustive, rather it provides diagnostic guidance for some of the major pathological problems on these crops.
7) wvufarm7.html (Links) is a page of links to other fruit-related sites. This is not an exhaustive set of links. It is intended to get the visitor going to some of the other fruit sites currently available.
8) wvufarm8.html (Index of Fruit Disease Photos, Biology and Monitoring Information) contains a photographic index of images from the Mid-Atlantic Orchard Monitoring Guide and links to fact sheets that were developed from information contained in the Guide.

Additions and Modifications to the Web Site in 1997: All pages received a site identification tag to help users keep track of their location on the Web. All of the main pages received a navigation image map so that visitors can go almost anywhere in the site from almost any page. Site maintenance and design software was changed from Netscape Navigator Gold to Microsoft FrontPage97 and FrontPage98-beta.

1) wvufarm1.html (Home Page) was redesigned with a more graphical interface, user-friendly layout, animated images, and sound. Page structure and meta-tags were redesigned to improve detection of the site by the major Internet search engines. Links include University administrative units, local weather conditions/forecasts, and a link for Internet Explorer 4.0 users to subscribe to the WVU Fruit Web Channel.
2) wvufarm2.html (About Us) was given a navigation bar, scrolling java script, and a link to the Virginia Tech page on regional fruit workers.
3) wvufarm3.html (Programs and Personnel) was removed and replaced with three pages: entomology.html, pathology.html, and aglabor.html. These pages have links to other pages that display research summaries, program descriptions, and personal information. For plant pathologists, there is a searchable html database of fruit-related titles from Plant Disease Reporter, Plant Disease, and Phytopathology. For both pathology and entomology, there is an online reprint request form.
4) wvufarm4.html (Publications) received the general changes outlined above.
5) wvufarm5.html (Key/Fruit Pests) received the general changes outlined above.
6) wvufarm6.html (Key/Fruit Diseases) was improved with additional photos from A. L. Jones and T. B. Sutton, Diseases of Tree Fruits in the East.
7) wvufarm7.html (Links) received new links on an on-going basis.
8) wvufarm8.html (Index of Fruit Disease Photographs, Biology, and Monitoring Information) was improved with additional photos and disease cycle diagrams from A. L. Jones and T. B. Sutton, Diseases of Tree Fruits in the East. Tables of cultivar susceptibility to diseases were added with the help of Dr. K. S. Yoder at Virginina Tech. There are a total of 49 disease descriptions, 156 disease images, 7 disease cycle diagrams, and 14 tables of cultivar susceptibility. Where appropriate, links to other online fact sheets are provided.

The pages listed below are new in 1997:
9) wvufarm9.html (Index of Pest and Natural Enemy Photos) lists and accesses all arthropod pests and natural enemy photos from the Monitoring Guide.
10) wvufarm10.html (Disease Management Guides) provides links to PDF versions of the Va. Home Orchard Management Guide and the Va./W.Va./Md. Spray Bulletin. Mike Ellis (Ohio State University) and I developed a web version of his "Spray Guidelines for Organic Apple Production" (organic-apple.html) that can be accessed from this page.
11) wvufarm11.html (Visual Gallery of Disease Images) was added to facilitate disease diagnosis based on the layout of clickable thumbnail images from the major plant organs.
12) wvufarm12.html (Archive of Fruit Disease and Fruit Insect Focus) was added to allow past month's pages of Focus Pages to be accessed.
13) current.html (Current Conditions) was highly active in April through August when we posted current insect and disease observations at Kearneysville. This was done daily during bloom, with Maryblyt graphical images and interpretations, and as needed at other times. Insect observations and degree-day information were posted on alternate days, and pheromone trap data were posted weekly (pheromon.html) through August 31. Paul Steiner provided a frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) (with answers) page on Maryblyt.
14) reader.html (Reader Comments) is a page of feedback items and site awards.
15) whatsnew.html (What's New) provides the visitor with a quick summary of new items so that they can determine if anything of interest has been added since their last visit.
16) insectfocus.html (Fruit Insect Focus) is a monthly fact sheet on a particular insect pest or pest/natural enemy combination.
17) diseasefocus.html (Fruit Disease Focus) is similar to the above except focus is on a plant disease.
18) fruitloop.html (The Mid-Atlantic Regional Fruit Loop) is an umbrella page for all the participating fruit web sites in the region. Current participants include WVU, Virginia Tech, Rutgers, the University of Vermont, and the USDA/Appalachian Fruit Research Station.

Use Statistics for 1997: Precise statistics on the numbers of visits to each page are difficult to obtain because other web authors sometimes link directly to an internal page, thus by-passing the counter on the main page. The numbers listed in Table 1 are from the visible page counters and should be considered low estimates, since direct query of the server via Telnet provides numbers higher than those shown in Table 1. The Home Page received about 500 visits per month in 1997, followed by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Fruit Loop Page at 235 visits per month. The high use rate of the "Loop" suggests that its intended use, to facilitate movement among the mid-Atlantic Web sites, is being fulfilled. The top five specific page visits within the WVU Web site in 1997 were: 1) Index of Fruit Disease Photos (186 visits per month), 2) Visual Fruit Disease Key (thumbnail images) (120 visits per month), 3) Current Conditions (109 visits per month), 4) Key/Diseases (106 visits per month), and 5) a tie between Links and Index of Fruit Insect Photos (64 visits per month). The least visited pages included some of the specific descriptions of research items (perhaps because the counters were added after these had been online for 6 months already) and the online reprint request form. Use patterns within the top five items, specifically the Disease Index (number 1), the Visual Disease Key (number 2), and the text-based Key/Diseases (number 4), suggests that visitors are using the site mainly to diagnose fruit diseases.

Current Conditions was posted as an experiment in 1997 to determine the level of interest in Web-based information exchange. Based on comments received, both verbally and via email from users, and numbers of site visits, we plan to continue this service in 1998. Current plans are to include disease information from the Winchester area and, perhaps, updates from a regional fruit horticulturist.

Integration of Fruit Web Sites in the Mid-Atlantic Region: The umbrella page fruitloop.html (The Mid-Atlantic Regional Fruit Loop) was created to provide a common page of regional fruit links for local Internet users. The reasons for creating this page included: 1) all the participating sites have something unique to offer the fruit growing community, 2) content at the various sites is complimentary to content at the other sites, 3) an umbrella page accompanied by return links on Home Pages provides easy surfing for those interested in fruit and increases the use of individual member sites. The only requirement for members of the "Loop" is to place a text link, with the optional apple tree logo, on the Home Page of the participating site. To date, participation in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Fruit Loop includes Virginia Tech, West Virginia University, Rutgers, the University of Vermont, and the USDA/Appalachian Fruit Research Station. Although this is a first step in regional Web integration, a concerted effort by the participants is required if more in depth integration is to occur. In-depth web integration could include extensive hyperlinking among sites to truly facilitate the integration of sites. Examples of more intensive Web integration can be seen locally at the Virginia Tech and WVU Fruit Sites, and on the west coast at the Washington State University TFREC plant pathology site.

Table 1. Estimates of page visits at The University Experiment Farm WWW Site during portions of 1997

^z Values are from cgi-script page counters and should be considered as estimates only. Direct server query values are higher in all cases. Indented items are accessed only from the page listed above.

Web Site Author: Alan R. Biggs
Copyright ©1996-1997