EOL Computable Data Challenge - Encyclopedia of Life

“Background ... EOL has spent four years aggregating text, multimedia, and hyperlinks from more than 200 content providers, representing thousands of individual contributors and a wide range of biological subjects. We have reorganized and delivered this information in a standardized format for multiple audiences, both via our user-friendly web interface and via an Application Programming Interface (API). Information is now available on nearly one million organisms ranging from sub-specific to higher taxa; most but not all information is in English and geographic scope is worldwide. The subjects and types and richness of information on each page vary; an index of richness is available for each page. All information is either in the public domain or licensed with Creative Commons licenses and therefore available for re-use and text-mining. Information is subject to curation and re-identification. However, the computability of this information has not been tested. How can EOL be used for scientific analyses? What transformations or additional computable data sources might be necessary? ... The Challenge ... We invite ideas for scientific research projects that use EOL, including the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), to answer questions in biology. The specific field of biological interest for the challenge is open; projects in ecology, evolution, behavior, conservation biology, developmental biology, or systematics may be most appropriate. Projects advancing informatics alone may be less competitive. EOL may be used as a source of biological information, to establish a sampling strategy, to assist the retrieval of computable data by mapping identifiers across sources (e.g. to accomplish name resolution), and/or in other innovative ways. Projects involving data or text or image mining of EOL or BHL content are encouraged. Current EOL data and API shall be used; suggestions for modification of content or the API could be a deliverable of the project.  We encourage the use of data not yet in EOL for analyses. In all cases projects must honor terms of use and licensing as appropriate... Prize ... Total available prize funds are US$50,000. Multiple awards are possible, depending on submitted budgets. All prize funds must be spent before May 31, 2013... Submission Process ... Please describe your project idea in 3-6 pages with the following sections...”