The kerfuffle between Wikipedia and the science journals could be laid to rest if a new project announced today comes together.
The Encyclopedia of Life, which is being funded by $12.5m in charitable donations, is going to catalogue the world's animals and encourage "citizen-scientists" to report their sightings.
Citizendium, formed by Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, is one project hoping to bridge the gap between experts and ordinary people - but the Encyclopedia of Life is going even further.
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 Wednesday in Washington 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.
It appears they will begin by scraping the web for information, then checking the material they gather for accuracy and copyright issues. Then that material will become the basis of the encyclopedia entry.
Given that it's so early in development, the jury must still be out. On the one hand it sounds mightily ambitious; and on the other, one wonders whether a Wikipedia-style approach couldn't get it done far more quickly. But, if and when it comes to fruition, it should be a fantastic resource.
