“Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth…” - Edward O. Wilson
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) has no simple task. The organization wants to make it possible for anyone with an internet connection to access information about every living thing in the world.” They describe the goal on their website:
The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is an unprecedented global partnership between the scientific community and the general public. Our goal is to make freely available to anyone knowledge about all the world’s organisms. Anybody can register as an EOL member and add text, images, videos, comments or tags to EOL pages. Expert curators ensure quality of the core collection by authenticating materials submitted by diverse projects and individual contributors. Together we can make EOL the best, most comprehensive source for biodiversity information.
Bringing the power of the internet together with the passion of life science practioners, the site will catalog the 1.9 million currently known species and be updated as new species are discovered. Part of the challenge of understanding the interdependence and the connections between us humans and the natural world is having a knowledge of what is out there. With the Encyclopedia of Life, we should be able to better understand life on our planet, and therefore be better prepared to protect it.
More about the project can be found on their FAQ page.
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