Encyclopedia of Life launches - an ambitious project

Now this is a project I like - very ambitious but if it works this will be one of the most useful reference websites on the planet for anybody who is interested in what lives on earth. Keep in mind that there are currently 1.8 million named species on the planet so this will be one hell of a website to look after. And we though underwater.com.au was big site ...

But then - we don't have this kind of donor commitment - The effort to create the Encyclopedia of Life was spurred by a $10 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and $2.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 2007.

Their mission statement:

Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity.

Check it out at http://www.eol.org

Contributed by Tim Hochgrebe added 2008-03-05