Guide Note

The online catalog Encyclopedia of Life aims to create in-depth information pages on each of the more than 1.8 million known species. The ambitious project came about after a plea by E.O. Wilson at TED 2007 brought in funds of $50 million to support the creation of the site.¹

Fast Facts

1. Launched: February, 2008²
2. Funding received: $50 million²
3. Primary donors: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation³
4. Aims to document 1.8 million living species⁴
5. Most pages published under Creative Commons licenses⁵

The Encyclopedia of Life launched in February 2008 to such an influx of interested viewers — over 11 million in the first six hours — that it crashed and was periodically unavailable throughout the day. The site opened with 1 million placeholder pages (pages with little more than the name of the species), about 30,000 partially completed pages and 25 exemplar pages showing how finished pages will eventually look. The goal is for documentation of each species to include video, audio and pictures in addition to text to encourage a greater appreciation of living organisms in the world.⁶

The initial Encyclopedia pages were taken from numerous sources and compiled largely by scientists and volunteers. In time, the site will open to contributions from the public, modeling itself after the success of Wikipedia. A major difference is that content on The Encyclopedia of Life will be overseen by experts in each field. It is estimated that it will take 10 years to complete the project's stated goals at a cost of $110.5 million.²