IT World and Boingboing run stories about progress of the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL).
Encyclopedia of Life: Better than Wikipedia!
What leeches and ligers can teach you about evolution
The intention to create the EOL was publicly announced 8-9 May 2007 with a great video by Avenue A Razorfish, a press release, and remarks by MacArthur Foundation President Jonathan Fanton. Jesse Ausubel served as the founding chairman of the board and James Edwards as executive director. The EOL site was launched 27 February 2008 with content on 30,000 species. As of today EOL has over 1.3 million pages.