When I first heard about
The Encyclopedia Of Life,
a wikipedia for biodiversity,
I thought “hasn’t this been done already?”
Actually no.
Not on the internet nor in print.
There is no single reference
containing every species on Earth.
In fact, the 1.8 million species number
people throw around
is just an educated guess.
No one knows how many species there are.
Because no one has a comprehensive list.
So next time,
you think everything needed
is already supplied,
think again.
Not really a Wikipedia, more a mix of aggregating distributed data from thousands of web sites using some fancy new pixiedust and some social networking.