"In recent years, we have witnessed the impact that a website like Wikipedia can have on humanity, providing a common location for information on all things great and small. The Encyclopedia of Life has the potential to be a similar phenomenon, serving as a catalog, database, and learning tool about every organism that has ever lived on the planet. In the same way that dictionaries help literacy, the Encyclopedia can help biodiversity literacy."

"Members of the public will be able to use EOL in many different ways. In the near future, anyone will be able to personalize information on the EOL website for their own interests and uses. For example, one could create a field guide for a family vacation or for a day hike to a new location, which could then be downloaded to a personal digital assistant for easy access and information retrieval. It could be used to keep a catalogue of all the plants that might be found in one's neighborhood."