The ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' (abbreviated ''EoE'') is an electronic reference about the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

, its

natural environment The natural environment or natural world encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses ...

s, and their interaction with

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...

. The ''Encyclopedia'' is described as a free, fully searchable collection of articles written by

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

s, educators, and other approved experts, who collaborate and review each other's work. The articles are written in non-technical language and are intended to be useful to students, educators, scholars, and professionals, as well as to the general public. The authors, editors, and even copy editors are attributed on the articles with links to biographical pages on those individuals.''The Encyclopedia of Earth''
Cutler J. Cleveland, Editor (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). The ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' is a component of the larger Earth Portal (part of the Digital Universe project), which is a constellation of subject-specific information portals that contain news services, structured metadata, a federated environmental search engine, and other information resources. The technology platform for the ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' is a modified version of

MediaWiki MediaWiki is a free and open-source wiki software. It is used on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sites define a large part of the requirement set for MediaWi ...

, which is closed to all but approved users. Once an article is reviewed and approved it is published to a public site. The EoE was launched in September 2006 with about 360 articles, and as of November 30, 2010 had 7,678 articles.

Authoring and publishing process

Contributors to the ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' are made up of scientists, educators, and professionals within the environmental field. Contributors are vetted by the Environmental Information Coalition (EIC) Stewardship Committee, the governing body of the ''Encyclopedia of Earth'', before they are given access to the author's

wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...

. Within the wiki, where they operate under their real names and are given attribution for the published articles. Articles are written, edited, and published in a two-step process: # Content for the ''Encyclopedia'' is created, maintained, and governed by group of experts via a restricted-access wiki that uses a modified version of

. # Upon completion, content is reviewed and approved by Topic Editors, and then published to the free public site. Content may be continuously revised and updated on the authors' wiki, but revised articles require review and re-approval before revisions are displayed on the public site. Contributors are designated as "Authors" or "Topic Editors." Contributors can create, write and edit freely on all content within the Encyclopedia. Topic Editors act as reviewers of articles on topics upon which they are judged to have a high level of expertise. Articles, when written, are assigned by Encyclopedia staff to Topic Editors for review and, if appropriate, approval and automatic publication to the public site. As of early 2009, ''EoE'' staff were reporting that there were approximately 1,200 contributors from 60 different countries on the ''Encyclopedia''. The ''EoE'' has about 70 (as of late 2010) Content Partners, organizations that have a written agreement to provide their content to the ''Encyclopedia''. Content Partners include organizations like the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

, Conservation International, and

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its mission is to advance th ...

. The ''EoE'' also cites Content Sources, organizations that have content in the public domain which is used in the ''Encyclopedia''. In this category are various government agencies and Wikipedia. The ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' has a specific policy on use of Wikipedia content which requires authors and editors to carefully review and approve such content before using it and includes the following statement at the bottom of the article:

Note on Wikipedia Content: The authors of the content derived from Wikipedia are not identified. The ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' Author(s) and Topic Editor(s) listed at the top of this article may have significantly modified the content derived from Wikipedia with original content or content drawn from other sources. The ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' Topic Editor(s) listed at the top of this article has reviewed all of the content, including that derived from Wikipedia, and approved its accuracy for use in the ''Encyclopedia of Earth''. See ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' Policy on use of Wikipedia Content for further details.

The Authors, Topic Editors, Copy Editors, Content Partners, and Content Sources, are all attributed on the articles with links to biographical pages on those individuals and institutions. This is part of the EoE's stated policy of transparency. The ''Encyclopedia'' has a stated policy regarding neutrality and fairness"The Encyclopedia of Earth neutrality policy"
Cutler J. Cleveland, Editor (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). that requires articles, when touching upon any issue of controversy, to represent every different view on a subject that attracts a significant portion of adherents, with each such view and its arguments or evidence being expressed as fairly and sympathetically as possible. According to this neutrality policy, the ''Encyclopedia'' itself does not advocate positions on

environmental issues Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

Content

The ''Encyclopedia'' includes content somewhat more varied than a traditional encyclopedia or other related efforts like Wikipedia or

Citizendium Citizendium ( ; "the citizens' compendium of everything") is an English-language wiki-based free online encyclopedia launched by Larry Sanger, co-founder of Nupedia and Wikipedia. It was first announced in September 2006 as a fork of the Engli ...

. In addition to traditional articles, the ''Encyclopedia'' includes: ebooks, lectures, reports, and speeches. These source documents are locked on the authors' wiki and are therefore fixed. EoE staff report that some college professors are beginning to write up their lecture notes to result in full courses within the ''Encyclopedia''. Two projects that use the EoE as a content repository and resource are the Climate, Adaptation, Mitigation, E-Learning (CAMEL) project and the Online Clearinghouse for Education And Networking - Oil Interdisciplinary Learning (OCEAN-OIL) project.

Copyright policy

Content is governed by the

Creative Commons license A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyric ...

known as "Attribution-Share Alike". This license permits anyone to (1) copy, distribute, and display material, (2) revise, edit, remix, tweak, and build upon material, and to make commercial use of material, subject to these conditions: * Attribution. Users must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor. * Share Alike. If users alter, transform, or build upon this work, they may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to the "Attribution-Share Alike" license.

Organization and people

The ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' is being created by the Environmental Information Coalition (EIC), an open membership group of scientists, educators, and organizations. The EIC defines the roles and responsibilities for individuals and institutions involved in the Coalition, as well as the editorial guidelines for the Encyclopedia. An EIC ''Stewardship Committee'' functions as the primary working group that develops and enforces policies and guidelines for the Encyclopedia, with input from Topic Editors and Authors. The Secretariat for the EIC is the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), based in Washington D.C., USA. NCSE is a 501(c)(3)non-profit organization with a mission "to improve the scientific basis for environmental decisionmaking" and "specializes in programs that foster collaboration between diverse institutions, communities and individuals. We work closely with those creating and using environmental knowledge, including research, education, environmental, and business organizations, as well as governmental bodies at all levels." The Stewardship Committee comprises: * Arnold Bloom, University of California at Davis * Nancy Golubiewski, Auckland Council * Jennifer Hammock, Smithsonian/Encyclopedia of Life * Andy Jorgensen, University of Toledo * Ida Kubiszewski, Australian National University * Mark McGinley, Lingnan University * Emily Monosson * Michael Pidwirny (

University of British Columbia Okanagan The UBC's Okanagan Campus (commonly referred to as UBC Okanagan and UBCO) is University of British Columbia's campus located in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. The campus is the research and innovation hub in the province's southern interior ...

) The International Advisory Board for the Encyclopedia is listed as

Rita Colwell Rita Rossi Colwell (born November 23, 1934) is an American environmental microbiologist and scientific administrator. Colwell holds degrees in bacteriology, genetics, and oceanography and studies infectious diseases. Colwell is the founder and C ...

, Robert W. Corell,

Robert Costanza Robert Costanza (born September 14, 1950) is an American/Australian ecological economist and Professor at the Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and a ...

, Mohamed H. A. Hassan,

Thomas Homer-Dixon Thomas Homer-Dixon (born 1956) is a Canadian political scientist and author who researches threats to global security. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. He is ...

, Andrew J. Hoffman, Stephen P. Hubbell, Simon A. Levin, Bonnie J. McCay,

David W. Orr David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics Emeritus at Oberlin College, and presently Professor of Practice at Arizona State University. During his tenure at the Environmental Studies Center at O ...

Rajendra K. Pachauri Rajendra Kumar Pachauri (20 August 1940 – 13 February 2020) was the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 2002 to 2015, during the fourth and fifth assessment cycles. Under his leadership the IPCC was awarded ...

, Frank Sherwood Rowland, and B. L. Turner.

Migration to MediaWiki

On May 5, 2016 the editorial board announced that the encyclopedia would be migrating to the open source

platform. On November 16, 2016 the new web address was announced via email as bein
http://editors.eol.org/eoearth/wiki/Main_Page

References

{{Reflist

External links

''Encyclopedia of Earth'' Public Page
21st-century encyclopedias Internet properties established in 2006 Online encyclopedias English-language encyclopedias American online encyclopedias Encyclopedias of science