EOL is an online encyclopedia of life that provides information on over 1.9 million known species. It aims to be a comprehensive resource built collaboratively by scientific experts and the public. Typical species pages provide details on taxonomy, description, ecology, and multimedia. Contributors include research institutions, scientists, educators, and citizens who can submit photos, videos and other content. EOL also partners with projects like the Census of Marine Life to provide occurrence data and maps. It offers tools for education including podcasts, an interactive field guide, and collaborative authoring environments for creating species pages.

1. A free online biodiversity resource

2. 6.4.2010 Introduction to EOL EOL and the Census of Marine Life Resources and Tools Contributing to EOL Discussion of ways EOL might be able to support Summer Science in NE activities, possible connections, contributions. Survey (Help us build a better Field Guide!)

3. What is EOL? What: On-line resource—plants, animals, microorganisms Web pages for 1.9 million known species Plus millions more yet to be described Guiding Principles: Common format “ One stop knowledge shopping” Freely available Collaboratively built Customizable by user Never completed

4. EOL Species Pages

5. Information can come from many partners Objects are sorted by topic Each partner gets credit

6. Typical species page

7. Overview Introduction Description Physical Description Molecular Barcode Life History Identification Original Description Physiology Evolution and Systematics Classification Paleontology Phylogeny Nomenclatural history Ecology and Distribution Geographic Distribution Habitat Niche Ecosystem Role Conservation Relevance Toxicity Ethnobotany How to Grow Example of detailed table of contents

8. Links to digital literature

9. Maps from global museum and observation data Multimedia and maps Image Gallery Videos

10. Diverse Contributors Scientific community Assemble scientific information Authenticate information – CURATORS Content partners More than 60 organizations Nearly 200 contributing groups 40,000 registered individual contributors Students, teachers, enthusiasts Submit photos, videos, other species information Submissions with scientific value are brought into authenticated pages

11. Census of Marine Life and EOL EOL is a partner of the Census of Marine Life (CoML) Current CoML contributions to EOL species pages: World Registry of Marine Species (Worms) Census of Coral Reef Ecosystems (CReef) Arctic Ocean Diversity (ArcOD) Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ) Census of the Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life (CeDAMar) Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Project (POST) Chemosynthitic Ecosystem Science (ChEss) Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (CenSeam) CoML projects and many others have provided occurrence data to Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) and Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) , which provides maps to EOL NaGISA?

12. EOL Learning + Education Focus of the EOL Learning + Education Group is to provide tools and services to groups to better utilize and contribute to the Encyclopedia of Life.

13. Direct URL: http://education.eol.org

14. Podcast of Life Series Dive into the world of marine biology and biodiversity through the Podcast of Life . Includes podcast audio, Meet the Scientist feature pages, related educational materials and intriguing extras. www.eol.org/podcast

15. EOL Field Guide (beta) A refined view into the Encyclopedia of Life We’d like to think about ways to utilize this map and make it more interactive, useful

16. Content and images on Field Guide are drawn from authoritative information from EOL species pages

17. Education LifeDesk A LifeDesk is an online environment that provides a collaborative space for creating, editing, and publishing web pages of species information. The goal of using a LifeDesk in many cases is to generate content to publish to the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). Currently being beta tested by undergraduate biology students

18. Help Build EOL and the NE Coastal Field Guide: Contribute Images and Video

19. EOL Flickr Group Images and video harvested regularly Imported to EOL species pages as “unvetted” content with a yellow background Once reviewed by a curator, yellow background is removed Helps build the Field Guide: Images are drawn from EOL species pages (only vetted images at this time) To date over 50,000 images contributed to EOL

20. Flickr “how to” Join Flickr Join the EOL Group Upload your photo (as public) Add at least one machine tag Change the license on your image Add the image to the EOL group pool Images will be automatically gathered up by EOL and displayed as “un-vetted” content with a yellow background until they are reviewed. Tutorial available online at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/encyclopedia_of_life

21. Photo Information Photographers Name (or group name) Species Name Location found

22. Possible uses of EOL Before Sampling Review field guide to learn about what species you might find. Look up species on www.eol.org for more detailed information Identify species that need images, video or content During Sampling Take pictures or video (max 30 sec for Flickr) of species found or observed Record name of species, location, etc After Sampling Upload images and video to Encyclopedia of Life Flickr Group for upload to species pages and field guide. Possibility of adding geographic information and observations to Field Guide ( Thoughts and ideas about this?) Add content via Education LifeDesks ( If interested, let me know)

23. EOL Information EOL: www.eol.org EOL Learning + Education: http://education.eol.org/ Summer Science Resources http://education.eol.org/summerscience Contact: Tracy Barbaro, [email_address] 617-496-6764