The Encyclopedia of Life, a collaborative encyclopedia devoted to cataloging all species of living organisms, opened this week. The encyclopedia is supported by a US$110.5 million grant from various organizations, including the MacArthur Foundation and the Sloan Foundation. The site started with 30,000 entries; upon its launch on 26 February, it was overrun by traffic, and reverted to a less server-intensive demonstration until 28 February.

The effort is similar to that of Wikispecies and other online projects; the initiative will apparently rely partially on existing projects, including the Catalogue of Life and Fishbase.

Website: EOL.org

This week, the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees announced five new resolutions. One of the resolutions officially selected new board member Domas Mituzas as the Board's Executive Secretary, replacing Erik Möller. The other four resolutions approved new Wikimedia chapters:

• Australia resolution (Wikimedia Australia)
• Austria resolution (Wikimedia Österreich)
• Czech Republic resolution (Wikimedia Czech Republic)
• Hong Kong resolution (Wikimedia Hong Kong)

English Wikipedia editor and Esperanto Wikipedia administrator William O'Ryan (Oryanw), died on February 12, 2008. O'Ryan contributed over 4,000 edits to the Esperanto Wikipedia, and 458 edits to the English Wikipedia. His last edits were in September.

A paper submitted to peer-reviewed medical journal Genetics and Molecular Research cited Wikipedia; the only claim cited to Wikipedia within the paper, however, also includes the citation of a primary source.

Raul654 discovered that 2007 science fiction film The Last Mimzy used a series of DNA-related images from Wikipedia in a classroom scene, one of which was a derivative of an image first created by Raul654. He said that the images included Image:DNA-labels.png, Image:DNA Overview.png, and Image:Thymine chemical structure.png.

• On Thursday, March 6, at 7 p.m. Andrew Keen, Wikipedia critic and author of The Cult of the Amateur, will present a lecture at Eastern Michigan University, as part of a four-part lecture series. Wikimedia Board member Kat Walsh is scheduled to present the series' final lecture in April.
• Blnguyen became the first editor to reach 200 Did You Know? creations (currently with 206), and is one of six editors with more than 200 DYK creations plus nominations.
• Wikimania 2009's host city is expected to be revealed no later than Thursday, March 6.
• The Swati Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
• The Serbian Wikipedia has reached 60,000 articles.
• The Czech Wikipedia has reached 90,000 articles.
• The Turkmen Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.