When planning computer systems and usage, cyber wisemen say to "push the envelope": plan to use the newest technology, anticipate its maximum usage, then double your requirements before buying. This way, your computer system will be state-of-the-art and may possibly operate at maximum efficiency for at least 6 months.

We at APIRS attempted to follow this advice last year when designing our new computer system and Internet Web site. Our anticipated usage of this site was relatively low: after all, how many people would want to gaze at aquatic plant photos and line drawings in a day? Maybe as many as 50 Web browsers a day?

Well, the results are in for the first four full months of usage of the APIRS site, December 1995 through March 1996. The answer is that in December, our site was visited an average of 25 times per day; by March, the average number of visits had increased to 80 times per day, not including University of Florida visitors. This is almost 2,500 times per month and climbing.

We appreciate your interest in our Web site and thank you for your comments and suggestions.

AQUAPHYTE ONLINE
Spring 1996

Online Book -
Nonindigenous Species of Florida

A timely and useful new book about nonindigenous species in Florida, three years in the making, is now available for viewing and downloading ONLY at the APIRS Web site. This 300+ page review of the scientific literature was initiated by the Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force authorized under the federal Nonindigenous Species Prevention and Control Act of 1990.

The book, Nonindigenous Aquatic and Selected Terrestrial Species of Florida, by J.A. McCann, L.N. Arkin and J.D. Williams (National Biological Service, Gainesville, Florida), presents the status, pathway and time of introduction, present distribution, and significant ecological and economic effects of 154 introduced species of plants, mollusks, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and crabs.

How did this worthy work, produced by a federal agency, come to be first "published" on a state agency Internet site? It's the economy, stupid! As a cost-saving measure, the NBS shut down its national publication and information unit in Colorado. Luckily, the University of Florida Aquatic Plant Information Office is still in business, and we were happy to suggest this most hi-tech way of paperless publishing. Our guess is that the book will gain wider distribution via the Internet than if 20 photocopies were produced and "made available" through traditional channels.