Encyclopedia of Life

Infobox Website
name = Encyclopedia of Life



caption = Main page of the EOL project
url = http://www.eol.org
commercial = no
type = Encyclopedia
language = English and partially localized in French, German, Russian and Ukrainian
registration = optional
owner =
launch date = 2008-02-26
current status = active
author = MacArthur Foundation, Sloan Foundation
alexa = 120,881 [cite web
url=http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/eol.org
title=Traffic Details for eol.org
accessdate=2008-07-15
year=2008
work=
publisher=Alexa Internet, Inc.]

Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a free, online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.8 million species of living organisms known to science. The EOL went live on February 26, 2008 with 30,000 entries. [cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/science/26ency.html?em&ex=1204261200&en=264ffed20b39b8f4&ei=5087%0A |title=The Encyclopedia of Life, No Bookshelf Required |publisher=New York Times |date=2008-02-26 |accessdate=2008-02-27 |first=Carl |last=Zimmer] The site immediately proved to be extremely popular, and temporarily had to revert to demonstration pages for two days when it was overrun by traffic from over 11 million views it received. [Associated Press. [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080227-AP-encyclopedi.html "Life Encyclopedia Debut Too Popular to Stay "Live"] February 27, 2008. Retrieved February 27, 2008 ] It is compiled from existing databases and from contributions by experts and non-experts throughout the world.cite web
url=http://www.eol.org/faqs.html#faq3.1
title=Who is ultimately responsible for constructing the Encyclopedia of Life?
accessdate=2007-05-09
year=2007
work=FAQ
publisher=Encyclopedia of Life] cite web
url=http://www.eol.org/faqs.html#faq1.1
title=What does Encyclopedia of Life seek to accomplish? What are its objectives?
accessdate=2007-05-09
year=2007
work=FAQ
publisher=Encyclopedia of Life] It aims to build one "infinitely expandable" page for each species, including video, sound, images, graphics, as well as text.cite web
url=http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070508/full/070508-7.html
title=Encyclopedia of Life launched
accessdate=2007-05-09
last=Odling-Smee
first=Lucy
date=2007-05-09
publisher=news @ nature.com
doi=10.1038/news070508-7] In addition, the Encyclopedia will incorporate the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which will contain the digitized print collections from the world's major natural history libraries. The project is initially backed by a $50 million funding commitment, led by the MacArthur Foundation and the Sloan Foundation.

At this time, the project's steering committee has senior officers from Biodiversity Heritage Library consortium , Field Museum, Harvard University, MacArthur Foundation, Marine Biological Laboratory, Missouri Botanical Garden, Sloan Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution.cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6638017.stm
title=Scientists compile 'book of life'
accessdate=2007-05-09
date=2007-05-09
publisher=BBC] [cite web
url=http://www.eol.org/demonstration.html
title=Demonstration pages
accessdate=2007-05-09
year=2007
publisher=Encyclopedia of Life]

Intention

Information about many species is already available from a variety of sources, in particular about the megafauna. Gathering currently available data on all 1.8 million species will take about 10 years.cite web
url=http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/Science-Sante/2007/05/09/001-encyclopedie-vie.shtml?ref=rss
title=une arche de Noé virtuelle
year=2007
publisher=radio-canada] The initiative will rely on established efforts, including the ITIS Catalogue of Life, Fishbase and the Assembling Tree of Life project of NSF. The initial focus will be on animals and plants, then later fungi and microbes, and finally extinct species. As the discovery of new species is expected to continue at a rapid rate, in particular on the micro scales such as bacteria and viruses, the encyclopedia will grow continuously.

The goal of EOL is to be a tool for students, scientists and the public, [ [http://www.eol.org/faqs.html#faq4.1 EOL Frequently Asked Questions ] ] and it will eventually become multi-lingual. [ [http://www.eol.org/faqs.html#faq3.5 EOL Frequently Asked Questions ] ]

The estimated cost is $110.5 million.

Vision

Biologist E. O. Wilson announced a "dream" that someone would fund the project during a TED speaking engagement in March 2007, [ [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/83 " E.O. Wilson: TED Prize wish: Help build the Encyclopedia of Life"] ] a yearly forum in which luminary speakers are given the opportunity to ask for a "dream prize". On 9 May 2007 that dream "came true" when five science foundations announced an initial 50 million dollar grant to get the project started. [ [http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/09/e_o_wilsons_encyclop.html "E. O. Wilson's Encyclopedia of Life gets over $50m in funding"] ]

Wikipedia and other existing online works served as an inspiration for the Encyclopedia of Life. [ [http://www.eol.org/faqs.html#faq6.6 EOL Frequently Asked Questions] ] [cite news | url=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070509185847.htm | work=Science Daily | title=Leading Scientists Announce Creation Of Encyclopedia Of Life | date=2007-05-09 Adapted from a Harvard University news release.] Most of the content organized by the site is available under various Creative Commons licenses. [EOL Terms of use, http://www.eol.org/terms_of_use]

ee also

*ARKive
*Catalogue of Life
*All Species Foundation
*Tree of Life Web Project
*Wikispecies
*CultureSheet Project
* List of online encyclopedias

Citations

External links

* [http://www.eol.org/ Encyclopedia of Life]
*cite web|url=http://www.eol.org/content/page/press_releases
title=A Leap for All Life: World’s Leading Scientists Announce Creation of “Encyclopedia of Life”
pub=Encyclopedia of Life
date=2007-05-09
*YouTube|6NwfGA4cxJQ|Introductory video