Encyclopedia of Life

Interesting online project... From the Seattle Times:

"In a whale-sized project, the world's scientists plan to compile everything they know about all of Earth's 1.8 million known species and put it all on one Web site, open to everyone.
The effort, called the Encyclopedia of Life, will include species descriptions, pictures, maps, videos, sound, sightings by amateurs and links to entire genomes and scientific journal papers. "Its first pages of information will be shown today in the nation's capital, where the massive effort is being announced by some of the world's leading scientific institutions and universities. The project will take about 10 years to complete." ...
"If the new encyclopedia progresses as planned, it should fill about 300 million pages — which, if lined up end-to-end, would be more than 52,000 miles long, able to stretch twice around the world at the equator.
"The MacArthur and Sloan foundations have given $12.5 million to pay for the first 2 ½ years of the effort, which will be free and accessible to everyone.
"The pages can be adjusted so they provide useful information for a schoolchild and a research biologist alike, with an emphasis on encouraging "citizen-scientists" to add their sightings. While amateurs can contribute in clearly marked side pages, the key detail and science parts of the encyclopedia will be compiled and reviewed by experts." ...
"As new species are discovered, they will be added, scientists say. They estimate that Earth has about 8 million species or so, but only one-quarter of them have been identified and named as separate species.
"After that, long-gone species — the fossil world — will be added.
"'If we don't include dinosaurs, we'll have lost 6-year-old boys,' Edwards said."

EOL Demonstration Page