The strongest argument for electronic documents on the web, or its successor, is their general availability to anyone, anywhere. I am aware that not everyone can afford to be connected to the web. But even in those countries where the cost of the computer and the connection are too expensive, getting these people connected seems like a much cheaper and more likely solution than trying to build up extensive library facilities, particulary with the peculiar historical requirements of systematics. Papers on the web is particularly attractive solution to the availability problem because they can be posted either as html documents or downloaded through FTP in some format such as Page Maker and printed at will in as many copies as necessary. I believe that the argument that the technology keeps changing is specious.
People seem to keep confusing the information with the technology.
If the information is valuable, it will be upgraded as the technology changes. This is what has happened with all of the commercial databases that are out there. Format changes are not all that difficult to deal with, although they can be expensive. Many of the newer programs even allow interchange of data between different formats and computer programs invisibly within the program. Finally I would like to end this extensive treatise with a personal story.