ater on, over policy and content
quality issues. Citizendium - which stands for a "citizen's
compendium of everything" - is a wiki project open to public
collaboration, but combining "public participation with gentle
expert guidance".

The project is experts-led, not experts-only. Contributors use
their own names, not anonymous pseudonyms (like in Wikipedia),
and they are guided by expert editors. As explained by Larry in
his essay "Toward a New Compendium of Knowledge", posted in
September 2006: "Editors will be able to make content decisions
in their areas of specialization, but otherwise working
shoulder-to-shoulder with ordinary authors." There are also
constables who make sure the rules are respected.

Citizendium was launched on March 25, 2007, with 1,100
articles, 820 authors and 180 editors. There were 9,800 high-
quality articles in January 2009, and 11,800 articles in August
2009. Citizendium also wants to act as a prototype for upcoming
large scale knowledge-building projects that would deliver
reliable reference, scholarly and educational content.

# Encyclopedia of Life

The Encyclopedia of Life was launched in May 2007 as a global
scientific effort to document all known species of animals and
plants (1.8 million), including endangered species, and
expedite the millions of species yet to be discovered and
catalogued (about 8 million).

This collaborative effort is led by several main institutions:
Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine
Biological Laboratory, Missouri Botanical Garden, Smithsonian
Institution, Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). The initial
funding came from the MacArthur Foundation (US $10 million) and
the Sloan Foundation ($2.5 million). A $100 million funding
over ten years will be necessary before self-financing.

The multimedia encyclopedia will gather texts, photos, maps,
sound and videos, with a webpage for each species. It will
provide a single portal for millions of documents scattered
online and offline. As a teaching and learning tool for a
better understanding of our planet, the encyclopedia wants to
reach everyone: researchers, teachers, students, pupils, media,
policy makers and the general public.

The encyclopedia's honorary chair is Edward Wilson, professor
emeritus at Harvard University, who was the first to express
the wish for such an encyclopedia, in an essay dated 2002. Five
years later, his project could become reality thanks to
techn