Idea for an "Open Dinosaur Project"-like Wikimedia Project

[Saint Abyssal <saint_abyssal@yahoo.com>]

I'm sure you've all heard of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can 
edit. This openness to contributions has allowed it to become one of the 
greatest online information sources that currently exists. You probably also 
have some passing familiarity with the Wikimedia Foundation's other projects, 
Wiktionary, Wikiquote, etc that apply the wiki architecture to traditional 
reference works.

I have an idea for a new Wikimedia Foundation project that would serve as a 
free reference work *for researchers*. This concept would apply the wiki 
architecture to the task of organizing data, references, images, and other data 
useful for the professional researcher. Similar to Wikispecies, but with all of 
science (and maybe other academic disciplines) in mind instead of just 
biological taxonomy. Paleontology-related articles would be on things like 
taxa, specimens, researchers, studies and papers, institutions, etc. 

I picture a page on say, T. rex as having a brief intro to the subject (like a 
Wikipedia lead section) and info box , but diverging from Wikipedia by giving 
technical information like diagnoses, cladograms, character matrices, specimen 
measurements, and a comprehensive bibliography of the relevant technical 
literature. I've made a sketchy rough draft available at 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Abyssal/Tyrannosaurus_rex to illustrate the 
concept.

The project could work along the lines of, or inspire endeavors similar to, the 
Open Dinosaur project. Unlike the ODP, however, this project would serve as a 
centralized location for open contributions to all of science rather than just 
an individual project or field of study. I've run this idea by some of the more 
prominent members of Wikiproject Dinosaurs and they've all expressed support 
for the concept. If you guys think that this type of reference would be 
beneficial to researchers (professional or armchair), then I will seek support 
among the Wikipedia community and see if the Wikimedia Foundation would be 
interesting in hosting and supporting it.

Does it sound worthwhile?

~ Abyssal