Dear ESA members,
ESA is pleased to be a new Content Partner of EoE. Over the next few weeks, we will be adding content from the Ecology fact sheets on EoE. You can participate too! Find out how from the message below by EoE Topic Editors Emmett Duffy and Mark McGinley, who are coordinating "The Ecology Collection". We hope you will support this effort. Meg Lowman ESA Vice President for Education New College of Florida Dear Fellow Ecologists, Are you alarmed that the general public seems woefully uninformed -- or misinformed -- about critical environmental issues and basic ecological science? So are we. Well, here is your chance to do something about it! We invite you to join a new effort to promote ecological literacy via the online Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE) (http://www.eoearth.org/). With >3,400 articles published so far and >10,000 page views per day, the EoE has established itself as the premier authoritative source of online information on the environment. It combines the currency and power of web-based collaboration with the trustworthiness of scientific content review. Specifically, we are coordinating development of "The Ecology Collection" (http://www.eoearth.org/article/Ecology_%28collection%29), which aims to cover the basic principles of ecology in outline form to provide "one-stop shopping" for teachers and other users needing basic, authoritative ecology information. Our goal is to have the collection significantly filled out by the end of July and we seeking authors who will pledge to contribute an article before Friday, July 11. Why should you contribute? First, popular EoE articles are viewed hundreds of times per day; traffic is growing by 20% per month. Thus, you can reach a far greater audience compared to other forms of publication. Second, EoE articles make a difference. Users such as teachers, students, decision makers and concerned citizens use EoE content to effect change in the world. Finally, (we know that this is important), your contribution should take little effort. We seek concise articles, one or a few pages, which can probably be lifted from your existing lecture notes. EoE staff will help make the conversion as easy as possible. If you like, the EoE is happy to recognize your efforts by sending a letter to your supervisor acknowledging your contribution to this important outreach effort. EoE and ESA share the goal to "promote and enhance ecology education for students of all ages and for the general public." We are very interested to hear from you how the EoE might better serve the needs of both teachers and the general public in building ecological literacy. Please join us! You can contact either Emmett or Mark or both at the email addresses below. We look forward to hearing from you and hope you will contribute an article before the July 11 deadline and help us meet our goal. Sincerely, Emmett Duffy Virginia Institute of Marine Science [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mark McGinley Texas Tech University [EMAIL PROTECTED]
