Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Encyclopedia of Life Passes the 1 Million Page Mark

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-whole-lot-of-life dept.

Chuckles08 writes "The Encyclopedia of Life project, an online resource aggregating information about all life on Earth, now has over 1 million taxon pages with content. All content is licensed under a Creative Commons license and includes text, over 1.5 million images, video, and sounds. It's an amazing resource for educators since the information is curated and rated. EOL also develops tools to make the content even more accessible, like the field guide tool that lets you build a customized online (and printable) field guide about any group of species or higher taxa."

23 comments

  1. 150 GB cap by cpu6502 · · Score: 0

    Too bad that Comcast placed a cap so my two kids can't watch those "1.5 million images, videos". The cap would be hit in just 9 days.

    --
    My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    1. Re:150 GB cap by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 3, Informative

      First-world problems are a bitch, eh?

      Actually, Old World vs New World might still be an informative division within the so-called First World. I live in the Old World, and have an uncapped 100/100 fiber internet at home. There are no limits or caps at all, even though it's a bog standard home service - I even run web and mail servers from home and have had close to 1TiB in combined upload & download traffic some months.

      On the other hand, we hear nothing but whining about miserly caps in the New World, which rather devalues whatever connection speed they have.

      --
      Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
    2. Re:150 GB cap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I live in the New World, and haven't seen a capped internet connection yet, except for phones (and I have one of the, now impossible to find, uncapped data plans). I don't know where these complainers are coming from.

    3. Re:150 GB cap by Hamsterdan · · Score: 1

      Most Bell and Videotron customers would *love* 150GB. Here we have a 50GB limit.

      --
      I've got better things to do tonight than die.
    4. Re:150 GB cap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I live in the New World, and haven't seen a capped internet connection yet, except for phones (and I have one of the, now impossible to find, uncapped data plans). I don't know where these complainers are coming from.

      The vast majority of North America.

      HURR DURR WERX 4 ME NO PROBLEMS GAIZ HURR

    5. Re:150 GB cap by cpu6502 · · Score: 1

      QUOTE: "[Government-created monopolies] are a bitch, eh?"

      FixedThatForYou.
      And yes monopolies like Comcast suck.

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    6. Re:150 GB cap by b4dc0d3r · · Score: 1

      Do you really think they could watch all of those in just 9 days? If they could, they would not remember any of it.

      I'd mod you off topic, but since people have already replied I decided I'd try to find out what relevance this has to bandwidth caps outside of turning an article into a word problem, solving it, and posting it for everyone to see.

  2. Good for quick research by sysrammer · · Score: 1

    I took a look. Good for quick research (assuming good data). May not be overly interesting to the casual browser (which is not its demographic, of course). The data is structured for useful comparisons. There are templates or forms for the type of data they are looking for. I imagine that most or all of the entries will get most of the forms filled out eventually.

    sr

    --
    His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
  3. next predicatable step by Eponymous+Hero · · Score: 2

    is someone going to make a google maps mashup of this or do i have to do it myself?

    --
    insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
    1. Re:next predicatable step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      is someone going to make a google maps mashup of this or do i have to do it myself?

      It's a bit broad for that, but the more-specific resources have them when they're relevant. GBIF, a global database of specimens (dead animals in museums etc) and observations, has maps. Tools for tracking conservation (whether something is endangered) include maps.

      However, EoL often includes these maps.

      (And hooray, for something I've indirectly contributed to -- I work for one of the organisations that shares its data with the EoL -- being on Slashdot!)

    2. Re:next predicatable step by TarMil · · Score: 1

      It already contains google maps mashups.

    3. Re:next predicatable step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe have a look at the website first. Might save you some time.

    4. Re:next predicatable step by Eponymous+Hero · · Score: 1

      yeah but that's only data directly relevant to the subject you're looking at. the really interesting mashups cross reference other things that put the data they present into different perspectives. like, say, fetching a list of species in zones that have high number of EIS researched, or lawsuits/complaints related to pollution or dumping waste.

      --
      insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
  4. Good Wikipedia Resource by cmholm · · Score: 1

    Thanks to the CC-licensing, this'll probably become a major go-to for wikipedia editors looking for additional source material... particularly images and graphics.

    --
    Luke, help me take this mask off ... Just for once, let me butterfly kiss you with my own eyes.
    1. Re:Good Wikipedia Resource by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks to the "advice" of long time Wikipedia enemy Larry Sanger, the Encyclopedia of life intentionally uses the Wikipedia incompatible CC-BY-NC-SA license.

    2. Re:Good Wikipedia Resource by cmholm · · Score: 1

      Hmm, that *is* a PITA. Well, even if the graphic material can't be borrowed, and the text not cut-n-pasted, at least it can be referenced as a source.

      --
      Luke, help me take this mask off ... Just for once, let me butterfly kiss you with my own eyes.
  5. What Other Data or Tools are Needed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone already mentioned a Google maps mashup, but I was wondering what else would be cool in terms of making this kind of resource more useful. One of the challenges is that EOL is still relatively young and doesn't have content like "computable data". What would it take for EOL to become the awesome place for information about life on Earth? Other types of data? More tools/apps?

  6. Re:Niggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are you a bot? You had first post on most comments today.