Encyclopedia of life rewrites all

A little less than a year ago, we learned about the upcoming launch of a global scale project, the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), which should collect detailed information about each of the nearly 2 million species of living beings known to date. A little less than a month ago, the project site began its work, “falling” from the influx of visitors in the very first hours after launch. Nevertheless, its creators are only proud of this fact - who else can boast 11 million views on the day of launch?



In addition to the truly impressive support of society and business, fueled the interest in the resource to such impressive values, the EOL project is primarily interested in how its work is organized. The principle of voluntary collaboration based on Wikipedia is implemented here in its final form: the thousands of army of volunteers, universities, scientific and commercial authorities at the level of Harvard University and Microsoft not only fill the site with information, but also raise funds for its existence. The 10-year budget of the project, calculated on the $ 50 million investment, is filled with donations by half!



Well, we wish success to the project, which, perhaps, does not bear the gigantic practical benefit to humanity, but definitely inspires at least part of it for great accomplishments, for escaping from the daily routine of close offices. It remains only to wish the millions of life forms listed in the EOL catalog to remain living not only on its pages.