This morning scientists from around the world announced the creation of the Encyclopedia of Life, a freely available site that will document 1.8 million species over the next ten years.
The Encyclopedia of Life
May 9, 2007
Share this post
2 Comments

Law Bytes
Episode 275: David Loukidelis on Why Stripping Privacy Enforcement from Canada’s Privacy Commissioner in Bill C-36 is Unnecessarily Risky Policy
byMichael Geist

June 22, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Michael Geist on Substack
Recent Posts
Why the Government’s Plan for a Social Media Ban in Bill C-34 Is Unconstitutional
Outdated Data and Dubious Comparisons: Digging into the Government’s AI Strategy Adoption Claims
Why Being Locked Out of Frontier AI is The Sovereignty Threat Canada Missed
Blocked Twice: How Bill C-34’s Kids’ Social Media Ban Would Compound the Online News Act’s Harm to Young Canadians’ News Access
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 275: David Loukidelis on Why Stripping Privacy Enforcement from Canada’s Privacy Commissioner in Bill C-36 is Unnecessarily Risky Policy

Gathering up all the info from your favorite search engine, and making a nice page summary is nice. Wonder why they didn’t elect to participate in the Wikipedia project.
postgeographic.wordpress.com
Wikispecies came to mind for me to. But it appears they are a little more expert-based:
“2. Who will do the writing?
Unlike conventional encyclopedias, where an editorial team sits down and writes the entries, the Encyclopedia will be developed by bringing together (“mashing up”) content from a wide variety of sources. This material will then be authenticated by scientists, so that users will have authoritative information. As we move forward, Encyclopedia of Life and its board will work with scientists across the globe, securing the involvement of those individuals and institutions that are established experts on each species”
“6. What about Wikipedia?
Wikipedia inspired us. Wikipedia accumulated about 1.5 million entries in English in its first four years. That gave us confidence that our tasks are manageable with current technology and social behaviour, although the expert community in a lot of the subjects for pages in Encyclopedia of Life may be only a handful of people. Wikipedia has also created some species pages, as have other groups. Encyclopedia of Life will, we hope, unite all such efforts and increase their value. The Wikimedia Foundation is a member of the Encyclopedia’s Institutional Council. ”
Depending on the license used, you could see material passing back and forth between the projects.
Depending on the license,