New Encyclopedia of Life Gets Boost

The online Encyclopedia of Life is about to get real. At the TED conference this year biologist E.O. Wilson, winner of the TED prize, announced his wish to develop an evolving online encyclopedia to catalogue the world's species – hopefully before they're wiped out. Today, five major scientific institutions, including the MacArthur Foundation, announced their intent to back the project, which is expected to be completed in a decade.

Avenue A-Razorfish developed the design in about three weeks, which you can see above or at the web site for the encyclopedia.

According to Dr James Edwards, Executive Director of the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL):

"The EOL will provide valuable bio-diversity and conservation information to anyone, anywhere, at any time. It will ultimately make high-quality, well-organized information available on an unprecedented level. Even five years ago, we could not create such a resource, but advances in technology for searching, annotating, and visualizing information now permit us, indeed mandate us, to build the EOL."