A Web Page for Every Species

This is one of the most fascinating posts I’ve read this year so far. It’s the story behind The Encyclopedia of Life.

It has it all: An ambitious idea way ahead of its time; an eight year story from idea through to conception; a fascinating mix of world-wide collaboration, physical devices (a handheld species identifier if you can believe it), totally unique data visualisation techniques; and at the end of all this we end up with something that is going to add a rather significant amount to the sum of human knowledge.

In short, a story of "how big things get done". Inspiring.