The Encyclopedia of Life

The Encyclopedia of Life is out to catalogue all the world species. They are looking for help from you to get this ongoing project up to date with as many contributors as they can get to keep fresh information on existing and new species.



The following is a copy of what they are looking for in contributors and a coupe of links to check out the site.



"Help us build the Encyclopedia of Life"

"The Encyclopedia of Life is a place for information about all of organisms of the world. Soon, anyone will be able to add pictures and information. Expert curators will ensure quality on our authenticated pages. Together we will make EOL the best, most comprehensive source for biodiversity information.



A few things to note:

We are committed to providing information for free, with as few restrictions on re-use as possible. See our Licensing Policy.
We are committed to clearly crediting the sources of the information we serve and urge our visitors to cite and visit the original sources.



I have images I'd like to share.
There will be more than one way to contribute, but for now we have set up an Encyclopedia of Life group at the collaborative photo-sharing site, Flickr . Be sure to scroll down and read the instructions about how to license and tag your images so we can easily index them on our site. The images won’t go on our species pages immediately, but look for them by the beginning of 2009. It's also important that the images you share through Flickr are your own and NOT images you found elsewhere.



I have an online database I'd like to share.
Contact us to begin the process of sharing your information through EOL (select "Become a Content Partner"). You don't need to share all of your text or multimedia, but what you do share must bear one of our accepted licenses. We will work with you so that it will be easy for you to keep your data updated on EOL. For more detail, see the following documents:

Commitment
Licensing policy
Transfer schema
Data element glossary
We are working on an online registration process to facilitate data sharing partnerships.




I am a scientist (or representing a community of scientists) and I'd like to provide text and other information for species pages.
We are planning several ways to do this. At the end of 2008 we will be releasing Expert LifeDesks. These will enable scientific communities to assemble text and multimedia in ways useful to you and to us. Modeled after, and compatible with, EDIT Scratchpads, you'll have your own customizable online environment to maintain your information. You may also contribute to the Tree of Life Web, or another relevant data partner, as we are sharing information with them. You will also be able to submit information using spreadsheets (details forthcoming). To get on the notification list for contributors, contact us (select "Become a Curator").



See our exemplar pages for the kinds of information appropriate for species pages.



If you need help organizing your colleagues, consider submitting a workshop proposal to the Biodiversity Synthesis Center.



I'm not a trained scientist but I'd like to help in any way I can.
You'll be able to contribute your own images (see above), text, and observations in a variety of ways. Starting in December 2008, you'll be able to add tags to our images and comment on the contents of the web site. Later in 2009 there will be new ways for you to share content with EOL, such as Public LifeDesks. All contributions should be visible; some contributions will be selected by curators as authenticated (high-quality, endorsed) content. By the way, even if you are not a "trained scientist", you may be a citizen scientist qualified to curate species pages.



I would like to help curate species pages.
EOL will open its doors to contributions from everyone. Curators will identify the best quality contributions. We will release a beta version of curation policies and tools in December 2008 and will phase in the full system in 2009. We’ll invite you to register as a curator here and provide us with your credentials and other reasons why you think you would be a good curator. To get on the notification list for curators, contact us (select "Request to curate a page").

A draft of the Curator Network plan is now available (also available in Spanish and Catalan). Please share your comments with us in the forum.



I'm a teacher or college faculty member and would like my students to contribute to the Encyclopedia of Life.
Please contact our Education and Outreach coordinator who may direct you to a partner project, such as Animal Diversity Web. Or, you may want to wait for our K-12 LifeDesks, which will begin to appear in 2009.



I'm a student and I would like to contribute to the Encyclopedia of Life.
Images might be a good first step (see above). Talk to your teacher about class projects that might involve EOL. Starting in December, you'll be able to add tags to our images and comment on the contents of the web site. Later you’ll be able to use LifeDesks to submit information, observations, and stories. Feel free to register and take part in discussions on our Forum.



I am a scientist who has compiled an authoritative classification that EOL should be using for a group of organisms.
We encourage you to submit your classification to the Catalogue of Life.

In 2009 we will be working on tools that will allow you to submit your classification or your own list of names and use this to navigate through the Encyclopedia of Life. Expert LifeDesks will also contain tools to help you build your own classifications and share them with us.



I have a database of species information, but it is not yet online.
Contact us to begin the process of sharing your information through EOL"(select "Become a Content Partner").

You can check out EOL Here.

And help them build the site here.

The site looks like it will be a very interesting and informative place to frequent for a never ending database on all the species we share the planet with. I for one will be spending a bit of my free time exploring this site, hope you will too.