The Encylopedia of Life is a freely accessible online database of every known species, to give scientists the tools that they need to inspire preservation of Earth's biodiversity.It's an excellent example of the emerging world of free.The archive or data base has grown rapidly---to date there are pages for more than 150,000 species, with contributions from 250 specialists and 1,200 "citizen scientists".

The Encyclopedia is intended to document all of the 1.8 million living species known to science and it has an excellent Flickr group.

The Atlas of Living Australia is more modest in that it has no Flickr group.