WHISTLING BIRDS, scrambling insects, colorful plants, polar bear families, and unnamed marine microorganisms that science has yet to discover - they all have or are likely to get their own page in a new 21st-century compendium, the Internet-based Encyclopedia of Life.
The encyclopedia is an exciting effort to chronicle the names of and facts about the planet's 1.8 million known species, as well as species that will be discovered.
This massive undertaking is a collaborative effort rooted in part in the work of Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson, who calls the encyclopedia "the key tool that we need to inspire preservation of Earth's biodiversity." Wilson argues that man has been carelessly destroying life without understanding the organisms that are lost or their role in the planet's overall well-being. The encyclopedia will include existing Web resources and brand new material. Funding comes in part from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The encyclopedia's promise is that, using Web technology, it will expand knowledge in ways that compel people to become better stewards of the teeming abundance of life.
The encyclopedia's first 30,000 pages were released this week. But the website proved so popular on its first day that users overwhelmed the servers and the site crashed. Once the technical kinks are worked out, the encyclopedia should be a popular forum.
The inaugural content includes more than 20 "exemplar pages" - content-rich pages that were developed by scientists and include facts about the American burying beetle and the poisonous death cap mushroom.
Scientists won't be the only contributors. Like Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia of Life will be asking scientific amateurs, schoolchildren, and the general public to participate in various ways including donating money, providing feedback to improve the page, and providing content such facts and photographs.
Wikipedia is much loved but not entirely trusted, because users who add content don't always follow scholarly standards. For that reason, the Encyclopedia of Life is also looking for qualified curators to check accuracy.
But the upside of seeking public participation is great. Because schoolchildren will have the chance to help in the production of knowledge, the encyclopedia should be a powerful tool for engaging them in the investigation of the natural world. And pulling in children could be a step toward creating the next generation of scientists.
As of yesterday, the website, eol.org, was still in a shaky state, appearing only intermittently between error messages. Life can be messy that way. But as it moves through these birth pains, the encyclopedia could become a a new way of knowing the world.
