A presentation on how to use LifeDesk given at the Entomological Collections Network meeting in December 2009.

1. LifeDesk: Managing and Sharing
Biodiversity Research on the Web
Torsten Dikow
Biodiversity Synthesis Center
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA

2. “The Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key
information about all life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the
world” (www.eol.org)
www.eol.org blog.eol.org

3. LifeDesk www.lifedesks.org

4. Drupal – open source content management platform
Use of Drupal:
BBC
White House.gov
CNN
NASA
NATO
Greenpeace
United Nations
FedEx
major newspapers
...

5. Drupal – also being used by Scratchpads
www.scratchpads.eu

6. LifeDesk – Public Access – leptogastrinae.lifedesks.org

7. LifeDesk – Scientist Access

8. LifeDesk – My Account & Site Settings
• change color scheme
• change logo
• update your personal account

9. LifeDesk – Site Settings
Customization
◊ botanical and zoological nomenclatorial differences
◊ user selects taxonomic ranks to be used
◊ taxonomic relationships
• synonymy
• availability
• incorrect spelling

10. LifeDesk – Image Import

11. LifeDesk – Taxon Pages
◊ images from gallery
◊ text entered here
◊ taxonomy from classification
◊ references from bibliography
Chapter definitions follow TDWG standard.

12. LifeDesk – Bibliography

13. LifeDesk – Classification editor

14. LifeDesk – Classification editor

15. LifeDesk – Classification editor

16. LifeDesk – EOL Partnership

17. Species page in LifeDesk
http://leptogastrinae.lifedesks.org/pages/1797
Species page on EOL
http://www.eol.org/pages/770905

18. LifeDesk – Use of ...
◊ LifeDesk = best way to upload species information to EOL
Your participation is needed to improve EOL !
◊ LifeDesk = infrastructure for collaboration online
◊ LifeDesk = great outreach component for NSF applications
◊ LifeDesk modules available for download (http://www.lifedesks.org/modules)
• develop your own Drupal web presence
• still provide content to the EOL
◊ functionality improved regularly (http://www.lifedesks.org/newfeatures)
• bulk upload of text or images

19. Thank You ...
◊ EOL funding sources
◊ BioSynC
◊ David Shorthouse