The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL, eol.org) is an unprecedented partnership between the scientific community and the public.  Our goal is to build a globally accessible, reusable collection of descriptive information about all species known to science.  In its early phase, the EOL project focused on aggregating and indexing large amounts of predominantly English language materials.  Growing and transforming this rich and diverse compilation into a comprehensive, coherent, authoritative resource for international research, teaching, and learning is a monumental task.  It can only be accomplished through the collaboration of the world's major natural history organizations and the participation of many volunteer contributors, reviewers, and editors.

With the recent launch of EOL version 2, the project is now prepared to pursue the following major objectives:  (1) Work with organizations and institutions on five continents to develop and aggregate materials about the regional flora and fauna in local languages. (2) Facilitate the participation of key EOL audiences in collaborative knowledge discovery, content creation, and data management. (3) Guide content development efforts through a community-curated hotlist of high impact species and the application of content richness metrics.  EOL always seeks new collaborators, and we are continually adapting our policies and practices to meet user needs.  We are confident that our approach will scale to meet growing demands for biodiversity information, and we hope that increased access to online knowledge about taxa and biological systems will transform the science of biology and the public’s understanding of life on Earth.