17. Spanish content: INBio (Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad Costa Rica) Conabio (Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad) IABIN (Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network)
EOL currently has taxon pages with content for over 950,000 groups of organisms. Each page features several tabs that provide different kinds of information The first tab visitors usually see is the overview tab Ideally it provides a small sample of images and a couple of introductory paragraphs about the group.
The Detail tab features text articles about a wide range of topics.
Here’s an overview of all the subjects that may be covered We currently have a lot of articles about things like Distribution, Habitat, Conservation Status, general descriptions, and molecular biology, which mostly consists of links to molecular sequences. Other topics are not yet as well represented across species
The media tab offers an overview of images, videos, and sound files for a given group
The Literature tab provides access to bibliographic references and to full text articles and books courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL).
The Maps provides occurrence maps and range maps from several different providers, including GBIF, NatureServe, AquaMaps, and Discover Life Note that EOL generally focuses on descriptive information and illustrations, and that we collect specimen-based information only via these maps and specimen images, videos, and sounds. EOL complements specimen-based bioinformatics efforts but does not attempt to duplicate their work.
The text, images, videos, and maps featured on EOL pages are provided by over 190 content partners, which range from natural history museums and international research consortia to members of popular sites like Flickr and Wikipedia.
Content provided by scientists is considered trusted information, whereas materials provided by the public are marked as unreviewed.
Quality control is provided by site members who can express their opinions through object ratings and comments and by our curator network, which currently consists of over 800 scientists who have the power to trust or untrust data objects
Information about the curation and comment history of a given data object page is available on data object pages that serve as the hub for all information about a given image, video, map, or article.
In addition to the review status, ratings, and comments, these page feature full attribution to suppliers and copyright owners, information about the license for reuse, and in the case of media files the description or caption from the supplier.
Also, any comments or curation actions relevant to a given data object are listed on these pages, in chronological order.
EOL has been around since 2008 But just a few months ago, we launched a new version of the site, which we call EOL version 2 The major objectives of this new version are: to make the EOL collection more accessible to a world-wide audience to provide new tools for participation & interaction
In order to be able to serve a global audience, we rely on you, our global partners to help us connect with potential content partners in your region On this map, global partners with an e icon are already flowing content to EOL or are about to start flowing content. By forging relationships with more partner organizations all over the world, we hope to expand both languages and content available on EOL over the next few years. By forging relationships with more partner organizations all over the world, we hope to expand both languages and content available on EOL over the next few years.
Right now, we already have spanish language content for several thousand species thanks to our partners at INBio, CONABIO, and IABIN ...
... and we have Arabic content for over 1000 species thanks to our partners at the New Library of Alexandria We will also soon have content for over 2000 species through our partners at Naturalis.
With the new EOL, we also want to provide a platform that lets our visitors interact with our content and with one another.To facilitate personalization and collaboration on the site, we have introduced the concepts of virtual collections & communities.
EOL collections are lists of links to EOL content, such as taxon pages, individual text sections about a particular topic, media objects like images, videos, sounds, or people and institutions that are registered on the site. For example here is a collection of the butterflies found in INBioParque in Costa Rica You can click either on the taxon name or on the thumbnail to go to the EOL page for this taxon
And the creator of the collection has also provided their own annotation for each of the species in the collection. There are currently three different layout options for viewing EOL collections. In addition to the annotated view shown here...
...there’s also a gallery view that’s particularly suitable for image collections or for collections of taxa...
... and a list view that’s particularly suitable for long lists of items that may constitute a working collection for a particular project.
EOL members can use collections to organize EOL content from their personal point of view, for example, many people have started collections of species they have encountered in their backyard, their bird life list, etc.
You can also use an EOL collection to tell a story and share your knowledge about a biological phenomenon. For example, here is a collection of images that show examples of paternal care, i.e., males taking care of offspring across the animal kingdom.
You can also use collections to highlight materials relevant for a particular classroom or research project. For example the i5k project, which puts together a list of 5000 arthropod species to propose for genome sequencing, has started to assemble an EOL collection for their project.
Since the EOL version 2 launch less than 4 months ago, our members have already created well over 1500 collections, and we’re curious to see what they will come up with next.
A couple of hundred of these content partner collections. Each of our content partners gets a default collection...
...that lists all the taxa and data objects featured in the data set they provide to EOL.
In addition to the EOL collections, we have also introduced virtual communities on EOL EOL communities are usually built around collections, and they provide a virtual place for like-minded people to congregate and interact. For example, here is a community that we set up to coordinate our work with people from National Geographic and the National Park Service to support the recent BioBlitz in Saguaro National Park in Arizona. Community members can use these communities to exchange ideas about biodiversity, to coordinate projects, ...
... or to showcase their collections. ... or to showcase their collections.
You can also use both collections and communities to promote your own projects on EOL. For example, by putting up collections with organisms found on their campus, the University of Hawaii at Manoa is using EOL collections and communities to get the word out about the fact that their campus is one of the most species-rich of any university in the United States.
Currently, there are over 90 communities on EOL, and we hope this number will grow steadily in the next few months.
With the new emphasis on interactivity and collaboration, EOL has also introduced activity streams and newsfeeds. For example, our home page features a column with the most recent actions of site members, e.g., you can see who has just added new content or a comment, or what content has just been trusted or untrusted by a curator. With the new emphasis on interactivity and collaboration, EOL has also introduced activity streams and newsfeeds. For example, our home page features a column with the most recent actions of site members, e.g., you can see who has just added new content or a comment, or what content has just been trusted or untrusted by a curator.
Also, every EOL page also has an Updates column on the overview tab...
... and an Updates tab where you can see all the conversations about a given taxon and its data objects.
... and as I have shown you earlier, data object pages also feature a list of comments and actions specific to that particular object.
If you are an EOL member, you have a personal newsfeed where you will see all the updates relevant to you. This newsfeed will have all the replies to your comments as well as updates about any taxon, collection, community, data object, or person on your watchlist.
Each member’s watchlist is compiled automatically through their activity on the site, which is also recorded in a personal activity feed. For example, when you post a comment about an image, that image will be placed on your watchlist. Or you can also actively collect things by clicking on the ubiquitous “add to a collection buttons” across the site.
Right now, you have to log into the site and check your newsfeed to see what’s new, but we are in the process of developing automatic EOL updates by email.