ZipcodeZoo: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:48, 14 March 2015

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{{db-multiple|G4|G11|G12|url=http://zipcodezoo.com/index.php/ZipcodeZoo:About}}

{{Infobox Website

| name = ZipcodeZoo

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| alexa = {{DecreasePositive}} 455,459 ({{as of|2015|3|14|alt=March2015}})<ref name="alexa">{{cite web|url= http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/zipcodezoo.com |title= ZipcodeZoo Site Info | publisher= [[Alexa Internet]] |accessdate= 2015-3-14 }}</ref>

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'''ZipcodeZoo''' is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all living [[species]] and [[infraspecies]] known to science.<ref>http://zipcodezoo.com/index.php?title=ZipcodeZoo:About</ref> It is compiled from existing databases. It offers one page for each living species, supplementing text with video, sound, and images where available. ZipcodeZoo.com was launched in 2004, four years before the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Life Encyclopedia of Life]] was launched.

== Goals ==

Like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Animal_Diversity_Web Animal Diversity Web]], ZipcodeZoo is an online [[database]] that collects the [[natural history]], [[Biological classification|classification]], [[species]] characteristics, [[conservation biology]], and [[Range (biology)|distribution]] [[information]] of thousands of species and [[infraspecies]]. It includes over 800,000 [[photographs]], 50,000 [[videos]], 160,000 [[media clip|sound clip]]s, and a 3.2 million maps [[maps]] describing nearly 3.2 million species and infraspecies.

ZipcodeZoo.com provides a field guide for amateur and professional naturalists, providing assistance in species identification. Specifically, the site strives for comprehensiveness, currency, great illustrations, and responsiveness.

* '''comprehensiveness'''.

ZipcodeZoo draws on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalogue_of_Life Catalogue of Life]] for its basic species list, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Biodiversity_Information_Facility Global Biodiversity Information Facility]] for its maps, [[Flickr]] for many of its photos, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube YouTube] for videos, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeno-canto Xeno-canto]] for some of its sound recordings.

** Information is provided on every species listed in the [http://www.catalogueoflife.org/annual-checklist/2015/ Catalogue of Life: 2015 Annual Checklist], which builds on 151 databases developed by taxonomists specializing in various groups of plants or animals.

** Every page builds on the expertise embodied in Wikipedia, which has been found to be about as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica].

All the pages are published under one of the Creative Commons licenses.

* '''currency'''. An encyclopedia must contain current information to be useful.

** Information on any species is constantly expanding, and sometimes changing. ZipcodeZoo.com uses Wikipedia as one primary source of information; to keep current, the English version is mirrored monthly, and pages are republished as Wikipedia's content changes.

** Scientific names change. When a user searches for any of 945,000+ synonyms, they will be automatically redirected to the preferred name.

* '''copious illustrations'''. The site mines Flickr and Wikimedia Commons for photos, Youtube for videos, and Xeno-Canto for sound recordings, all to assure that a user understands what a species looks and sounds like.

* '''responsive layout'''. Sites such as [http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia] are not designed to work in cellphones or other devices which may have limited resolution, and when they load, menus collapse into a heap and tables run off the page. ZipcodeZoo.com will be the first Mediawiki site to have a responsive design (coming soon!).

* Use of geolocation. Species identification is a matter of probability. We do not want to conclude we have seen X if X is extinct, or only found in Antarctica.

* '''Finders'''. You can use geolocation information (captured automatically by HTML5 and most smart devices) to help you sort through what you've seen using the various finders at [http://Lookup.Life Lookup Life].

* '''maps'''. The site includes maps from GBIF for all species. Maps allow panning, zooming, changing the map style, and scrolling through time to see how an animal population has changed.