Encyclopedia of Life Review
The Encyclopedia of Life made its debut with a limited amount of web pages documenting 30,000 species, but already have pages set up for 1 million species. Eol.org intends to quickly fill in the 1 million pages and continue until all of the 1.8 million species known to the scientific world are documented on their ever-evolving site. According to site info, the Encyclopedia of Life believes that there is no other database with information that is as extensive as this site will be.
The goals of eol.org are lofty and include "transforming the science of biology; inspiring a new generation of scientists; engaging a wide audience of schoolchildren, educators, and citizen scientists; and increasing the collective understanding of life on earth.
The Encyclopedia of Life staff includes scientists and non-scientists who work with museums and research institutions from around the world. Notables who were instrumental in the conception and organization of eol.org include Chris Thompson from the Smithsonian Institution and Daniel Janzen from the University of Pennsylvania and INBio, Costa Rico. An informational video on eol.org states that the Encyclopedia of Life was the dream of E.O. Wilson of Harvard University. There are plans for the site to accept information from anyone-similar to the Wikipedia site. However, the curators of each species will approve each submission before inclusion.
Eol.org is organized by species pages, which are curated by expert taxonomists. The species page includes content from many digital sources. Scientists have authenticated all content. On each page of the Encyclopedia of Life are images and videos of the species and licensing information is included with each image. The species pages list the common names and general information with links to content providers like google and Wikipedia, but also have the scientific names as well as "deep" links to authoritative sources such as scientific papers and reference lists. Subsets of each organism are provided on the species page.
Eol.org is in English and French at this time, but future plans call for many more language choices to be available. The Encyclopedia of Life site includes a page for upcoming global events, a forum and a blog.
Data Partners on eol.org at this time include these respected websites: the Catalogue of Life Partnership, the Tree of Life, The Global Biodiversity Information Facility, the FishBase, the AmphibiaWeb, and the Solanaceae Source.
The Encyclopedia of Life at eol.org has a wealth of information and the potential to be valuable resource.
Sources used:
www.eol.org/index
Encyclopedia of Life can't stay alive in debut
By Seth Borenstein
The Associated Press
In February 27, 2008 print edition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram
Published by Elena H
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17 Comments
Post a CommentI just checked out this website (which I had never heard of before). It's beautiful! Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Thanks for sharing about this. I went to check it out when it first went online but, as you reported, it had crashed. I meant to go back and never did. Thanks for the reminder
It's amazing what one can miss on the Web! Thanks for the heads up!
Thank you for this great review. I love it! I have learned something new today!
Wow! An incredible undertaking. Excellent article.
Eacelent. Thank You fer sharin'. Mizpah. ;-}}>
Very cool! I had not heard of this site but may be able to use it with lesson plans. Thanks!
What an incredible resource!
WOW! Great article! Thanks! Five stars! :-)
Interesting...will have to check it out. Thanks for sharing!