A new model for efficient, need-driven progress in generating primary biodiversity information resources.

Premise: The field of biodiversity informatics has developed rapidly in recent years, with broad availability of large-scale information resources. However, online biodiversity information is biased spatially as a result of slow and uneven capture and digitization of existing data resources. The West African Plants Initiative approach to data capture is a prototype of a novel solution to the problems of the traditional model, in which the institutional "owner" of the specimens is responsible for digital capture of associated data.