Interested in acoustic monitoring of biodiversity and natural environments? We want to hear from you!
We are conducting a short online survey (about 10 minutes) to understand the future needs of acoustic monitoring technology applied to the study of biodiversity in terrestrial and aquatic environments. By participating in this survey, you will be contributing to the development of a roadmap for acoustic monitoring technology, a publicly available document to support strategic and long-term planning of future open-source acoustic devices. We also aim to understand how willing people are to learn about open-source hardware and associated software to be able to customize their equipment.
Take the survey here: https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90316767/OpenSourceAcousticDevices
Please pass along this survey to anyone who may be interested. We aim to get as many respondents as possible from all over the planet to better reflect the technology needs of the bio/ecoacoustics community. We're particularly keen to hear the voice of those often underrepresented (e.g. Africa, South & Central America, Asia).
We've also tweeted about the survey and would appreciate retweets (if you're into social media) to help expand the reach of the survey: https://twitter.com/jj_lahoz/status/1374578384844427268
The survey closes on Sunday 18th April, and we'll present the summarised results in this Wildlabs page: http://www.wildlabs.net/community/thread/1106
A short blurb about our motivation: technology has great potential to become a game-changer in how we collect data on wildlife and ecosystems, and how we tackle conservation threats. To realise this potential, it is key to understand what the community of users wants developed, and which of these developments are of highest priority. Open-source hardware and software (that can be freely used, modified and distributed) allow the collaborative development of low-cost devices for ecology and conservation, but no clear direction exists about the technology needs and priorities of the bioacoustics/ecoacoustics community. This survey is a first step into clarifying this situation. A freely accessible technology roadmap document reflecting these needs and priorities, if backed by widespread endorsement (e.g. from leading research labs, conservation NGOs, governmental and intergovernmental institutions) could become a powerful tool for the discipline. Such tool could inspire and attract technologists around the world to contribute in a focused way, and even helping obtaining funding for technology development.
Thanks! Your contribution and time are very much appreciated.
Dr José Lahoz-Monfort (University of Melbourne)
Ashton Dickerson (Research Assistant, University of Melbourne)
(in collaboration with Prof Alex Rogers, Dr Andy Hill and Dr Peter Prince, Open Acoustic Devices)
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Jose Lahoz-Monfort
University of Melbourne
SCB Conservation Technology Working Group
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