Quote:
Originally Posted by Keysguy
He has a couple of "tech helpers" but honestly, it's pretty much all Jay. He has a fabulous personal collection that was the impetus behind IOSPE (better than just a spreadsheet which is what I have) and then it just took off. When major global horticultural institutions use references to IOSPE, he obviously is doing something right. Every orchid grower should refer to it and support it.  |
There's a little bit of history here, in which I played a small supporting role. This has been a labor of love for Jay Pfahl for a lot of years. Back in about 2006 the site was a few thousand species. Then Jay lost his orchids (and the small business of selling them that he had used to support IOSPE) in a hurricane. When he made a plea on the bulletin board (that predated the various forums) for contributions to help him buy reference materials, I suggested that maybe he could set up a subscription structure (sort of like NPR or PBS) that could give him a longer-term revenue stream. (Like public TV and radio, free for anybody, but the people who want to keep these going are willing to contribute) The idea caught on, and he was able to buy many more references over the years. The information about each species comes from those books and scholarly journals that he has bought - they're expensive. Between the references, and photo contributions, the site has grown to about 23,000 species, with photos or occasionally botanical drawings! Considering that the total number of orchid species is somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000, this represents the majority of orchid species. And the information is solid - it is from scientists working in the field, not internet searches. Each of those 23,000 entries has the citations of the source information.
So, c'mon... $10 per year is nothing! Subscirbe!
Linear Mode
