Signs of life
The Encyclopedia of Life keeps plugging along 5
-
Posted 10:06 AM on 28 Oct 2008
by Biodiversivist -
Posted in
-
Read More About
My real name is Russ Finley. I live in Seattle, married with children. Suffice it to say that although I am trained and educated as an engineer, my passion is nature. I very much want my grandchildren to live on a planet where lions, tigers, and bears have not joined the long and growing list of creatures that used to be. In an attempt to minimize the workload on Grist editors responsible for turning my submissions into intelligible articles, I will also be posting on a seperate blog called Biodiversivist, which will contain articles in addition to those submitted to Grist.
Related Stories
How Waxman-Markey tackles climate change by saving forests
When it comes to food, we’re all in this together
Add a Comment
You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.
Comments
View as Flat
Tai Haku Posted 12:17 am
29 Oct 2008
I would suggest a comnbination approach. Each species page could have brief scientific details editable and approvable only by the relevant scientist curator and then a wiki type editable section to which all can add further detail. For some species, like many birds, this would obviously be rapidly expandable
(see for example the birdforum opus).
Permalink
Biodiversivist Posted 2:00 am
29 Oct 2008
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
Permalink
Tai Haku Posted 1:52 am
30 Oct 2008
Permalink
wroush Posted 7:13 am
31 Oct 2008
I got a thoughtful comment on my post from David Patterson at EOL who wrote, "Finding a balance between authority and participation in the Encyclopedia of Life is challenging. Participation (and therefore scalability) without having a sense of quality would be very risky. So, the position is to begin with authoritative contributors, and then progressively open up the Web 2.0 dimensions. More of the participatory dimensions will become visible within the next few months."
So it sounds to me like they are at least vaguely aware of the benefits that crowdsourcing the project could bring, but are going to be super-cautious about it. Like you, I tend to think they're being too cautious and that if they opened up faster, the quality issue would sort itself out over time.
Permalink
Biodiversivist Posted 12:20 pm
31 Oct 2008
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
Permalink