The Story and People Behind Featured Creatures
Once upon a time in the Old Millennium (actually in 1996), John Capinera, the chair of the University of Florida's Entomology and Nematology Department, took a sabbatical within state to work with the Cooperative Extension Service agents of several counties. One of the things he learned was that the agents, most of whom had graduate degrees, needed more information on insect, mites and other organisms that went beyond what the University was delivering in its fact sheets. Thus was born the idea for a knowledgebase on the WWW that would deliver this information. The only thing John needed was someone who could be responsible for this project on a daily basis.
Thomas Fasulo, an extension entomologist within the department, was the perfect choice to head the project. Fasulo's assigment is electronic dissemination of information in support of the department's mission. As such, Fasulo is one of the few people in the world who is paid to actually develop Buggy Software and he has the resources (people, equipment, software) to begin and maintain the project.
Paul Choate, a lecturer within our department, is the Webmaster of the department's WWW site. In addition, Choate was (at that time) the department's photographer and would be supplying many of the photographs included in Featured Creatures, either from the department's library or taking new photographs as needed. Choate also modifed a Java script to create the keyword search function used in Featured Creatures for many years, until UF licensed the Google seach engine for its sites.
So Capinera, Fasulo and Choate met several times to decide on the name and basic organization of the Featured Creatures WWW site.
Matthew Downey was a computer science student who worked for Fasulo for several years. While both Matt and Fasulo worked out the detailed design for Featured Creatures, it was Matt who did most of the HTML work to create the menus and most of the original files on the WWW. Unfortunately, students cannot obtain tenure and so they have to graduate. Matt now works in Virginia for a firm that develops hardware and software for nuclear power plants. We pray every night that Matt no longer intentionally adds bugs to the software he writes.
Jane Medley is our department's award winning graphics artist. Jane designed the Featured Creatures logo. She and Patricia Hope, her assistant, also provide many of the digitized images used in Featured Creatures
After Matt Downey graduated, David Eversole, another computer science student who worked for Fasulo, did a number of other Featured Creatures files. After a short time David also graduated and went to work for Lockheed developing... Well, actually he was not allowed to say what he is working on.
Everett Yang, a graduate student in computer science, worked for Fasulo for so long that he underwent the exciting experience of upgrading Fasulo to a new computer system twice. Everett once told Fasulo that he hoped to graduate before having to do this a third time. Everett coded several Featured Creatures, but his duties were mostly in other areas. However, many of the photographs and drawings on the WWW site are the result of Everett's talent in fine tuning graphics. It was Everett who taught Andy Koehler (see below) how to use the graphic software and scanners in our lab. Eventually, Everett got his wish and graduated. He now holds down a high-paying consultant's job with a Microsoft company.
Everett and Matt Downey also cooperated in developing the four smaller logos for this site. These logos can be downloaded to other sites and used to link back to the Featured Creatures
WWW site.
To replace Everett, Fasulo hired Patrick Hope who had been a "Combat" Webmaster [rank - Sergeant] with the Marine Corps. Patrick expected a "cushy" civilian job and would never have hired on if he had known Fasulo was once a Captain in the Marine Corps. However, after Patrick's first "tour of duty" working for Fasulo, he decided to re-up when he realized Fasulo didn't hold uniform or "junk-on-the-bunk" inspections. At least, not on a regular basis. Eventually, Patrick also graduated and left for a position in the medical field.
In the summer of 1999, Andy Koehler, a high school student, volunteered to work in Fasulo's lab for free. [Well, actually Andy's father, the department's urban extension entomologist, "volunteered" him.] So Fasulo got someone to do the grunt HTML work for a lot more Featured Creatures files and some other special projects, and Andy learned how to do HTML code and other "interesting" computer tasks. It was Andy who enlarged all the thumbnail photographs in the existing Featured Creatures files so that visitors could actually see what they represented. Although Andy seemed intelligent, he decided to return to work for Fasulo when he started as a freshmen at UF. After five years he also left, going on to graduate school.
Andrew Puckett, another high school student, came to work for Fasulo to learn HTML coding, also on a voluntary basis. Fasulo later hired him officially and Andrew worked on Featured Creatures for almost two years, until he left to take do an internship with "The Shining Path" in Peru, or was it a missionary group? Andrew is now making bows for a living as he finishes college.
Thomas Fasulo is now back to coding most Featured Creatuess himself and is searching for another suck... uh, talented individual seeking experience and expertise in developing buggy software.
The co-sponsor of the Featured Creatures site is the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Division of Plant Industry. Many of the Featured Creatures files originally began life as DPI's Entomology Circulars.
One of Fasulo's many responsibilities on this project is to make sure that the DPI circulars are updated before being released as Featured Creatures files. This includes revising the names of many of the countries that have changed. For example: Celyon is now Sri Lanka, and Formosa is now Taiwan. Another important responsibility is ensuring that any pesticide recommendations are current. For example, Fasulo has removed more than one recommendation for DDT and aldrin. In addition, Fasulo not only searches for new photographs for these files, but seeks out individuals willing to update the older publications.
Playing an important role in this updating is Wayne Dixon, DPI's Bureau Chief for Entomology, Nematology and Plant Pathology. Wayne painstakingly reviews all the Featured Creatures files that began life as DPI Entomology Circulars and makes numerous recommendations for their improvement. Wayne is also very gracious about allowing other scientists to upgrade the older DPI Entomology circulars.
Of tremendous assistance in this effort was Pam Howell, a Senior Wordprocessing Operator in our department. Pam laboriously scanned hundreds of the DPI Entomology Circulars for both text and graphics, and then proofread them for mistakes. As a result, she made it much easier for authors to update the DPI Circulars and add them to the Featured Creatures database.
Last, but certainly not least, are all the individuals who write the Featured Creatures files and/or provide photographs and drawings. Without them there would be no Featured Creatures WWW site.
Project Coordinator: Thomas R. Fasulo
fasulo@ufl.edu
Copyright 1996-2008 University of Florida
Featured Creatures
Department of Entomology and Nematology
Division of Plant Industry
Electronic Data Information Source