Last November at I/ITSEC, the Office of Training Technology (OTT) unveiled the OTT SPIDER, Seamless Product Information, Data Exchange and Repository available on the World Wide Web (WWW). At that time, the WWW was still relatively new to the military, internet access was somewhat limited, and the whole idea of a WWW site as a "database" for training technology data and information was untested. Reaction to the OTT SPIDER was very positive, with military personnel, training developers, and commercial organizations all impressed with the potential of this resource, - a resource available then and today to all I/ITSEC attendees. In this paper, the first year of the OTT SPIDER's evolution and use is documented, chronicling continued growth and an enthusiastic world-wide reception of this new and evolving Navy on-line resource.

Building from an initial repository of over 1,000 files of training technology data and information, today the OTT SPIDER hosts approximately 1,300 files of information, and provides hundreds of links to related military, government, and commercial WWW sites. The OTT SPIDER receives over 1,000 "hits" each business day, from places as far as Singapore, Turkey, and South Korea. The most frequent foreign users are from Canada and the United Kingdom, and the numbers of US military users have grown steadily this year. Details on who is using the OTT SPIDER, what information is most frequently accessed, lessons learned, trends, and future plans are also discussed.

The OTT SPIDER also hosts a number of interactive features including electronic conferences that enable military training providers to gain immediate advice and information from training developers in industry, government, and academia. The OTT SPIDER also features: a unique and robust search engine; a searchable and interactive on-line calendar; a forum for requesting information about off-the-shelf training products and services; a reference center, and links to industry, government, and academic web sites related to training technology. In this paper, the development of the OTT SPIDER will be chronicled and a status report provided on the OTT SPIDER through mid-June, 1996. This paper will also document lessons learned, and include a discussion of trends and future plans for the OTT SPIDER through the year 2001 including: new interfaces and on-line capabilities, and a virtual on-line repository for training program design and development, and training delivery via the internet.