Dear wikitech-I readers,

I am trying to initiate an open, wiki-based species directory (those of you who read wikimedia-I will know about that) at www.wikispecies.org, which should become a wikimedia project. There are already several wikipedia authors who promised support for the project and detailed discussions are going on in forums and by e-mail.

The current problem is that we need developers who set up the basic structure for wikispecies, so that authors can start to supply contents. As Jimbo Wales suggested, the initial structure would be basically identical with the one of wikipedia.

I add a suggestion for the initial structure at the bottom of this e-mail. If you think that you could help, please do not hesitate to contact me. Every help will be appreciated. Best,

Benedikt

-------------------- MAIN PAGE AND SUBPAGE STRUCTURE

Best viewed at: www.fishbase.org (though for a rather professional user, therefore a bit extensive). Main page would need to be a search page that provides a determination key as well.

Search terms

A general division in “standard search” and “advanced search” with details would be good.

NAME (common name, scientific names, synonyms, taxonomic number, etc.) CLASSIFICATION KEY (classification, would be perfect if we could get a PDA compatible one for field applications) GLOSSARY FAMILY (loads of detail search functions, see at fishbase) DISTRIBUTION (loads of detail search functions see at fishbase: ‘country’) ECOSYSTEM (loads of detail search functions, see at fishbase) TOPIC (special topics and articles) TOOLS (loads of detail search functions, see at fishbase; including a reference/literature search) BIODIVERSITY MAP (once again: see at fishbase) MEDIA (maps, films, pictures, if available)

Subpage for species:

CLASSIFICATION (as tree diagram, looks like a path) NAMES MORPHOLOGY (incl. picture or illustration) BEHAVIOUR RESILIANCE / REPRODUCTION HABITAT / ENVIRONMENT MEDIA (images, maps, diagrams, videos, etc.) CLIMATE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE DISTRIBUTION (geographically and in terms of countries) CONSERVATION STATUS DANGERS REFERENCES

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