One of the goals of the NSF Planetary Biodiversity Inventory program is the large-scale description of species. Information and data management are critical to this enterprise. It is also important to make efficient use of the time and expertise of the limited number of taxonomic specialists around the world. Our project is strongly based on a real-time collaborative effort. The approach to this issue is described, including a treatment of taxonomic work flow and the technological innovations developed to facilitate and accelerate the process.