World Listening Day

A Message from John Owens, Florida Master Naturalist

Greetings Fellow Florida Master Naturalists

You may be aware that Monday, July 18, 2011 has been designated as the second annual World Listening Day. World Listening day is proposed to be an annual global event of the World Listening Project. The Project’s goals are to increase awareness of sound, the importance of sound and the interaction of sounds within an environment.

I have been asked, and have volunteered to create an activity which will support these goals and to involve local folks in the activity. I am particularly interested in natural sounds and bioacoustics. As a Florida Master Naturalist I am aware of a great group of folks who are interested many aspects of natural environments. I thought that Florida Master Naturalists may be interested in participating in the activity.

Would any Florida Master Naturalists be interested in participating in the second “World Listening Day” which will be held on Monday, July 18, 2011 ?

The proposed activity:
Each participant will be asked to listen to the soundscape at a location of their choosing, at dawn and dusk on Monday, July 18, 2011.
Each participant will be asked to listen for at least 15 minutes at Dawn and Dusk and to answer a few questions about what you hear. Some participants may be interested in making audio recordings of their “listening times” to share. These recordings are not necessary but are encouraged. If you choose to participate, you will be provided (via e-mail) with a brief introduction and the list of questions. You will be asked to e-mail your responses after the activity.

In order to summarize and analyze the responses, you will be asked to forward your responses, as soon as you are able, after completion of the listening activity. A listing of the answers will be compiled, summarized and the results will be reported to the participants. Hopefully this activity will lead to increased awareness of sounds and open further discussions.

The location could be your back yard, a park, the beach, wherever you choose to be. You will only asked to provide a general identity for the location (Park, residential, beach, City, etc for example) (Not specific addresses). You may chose whether the information that you collect may be shared with fellow participants and/or with the World Listening Project coordinators

If you are interested in participating please contact me at jbkuma (at)bellsouth.net .

Participant information that is requested:
- Your e-mail address,
- Location where you will be listening (you can always change the location as long as I know where you listen),
- Date and Times of Listening (Start- Stop), and
- Weather conditions at the location while listening.
I hope to hear from you soon. Meanwhile, Happy Listening
John Owens
Florida Master Naturalist
Listener, Observer, Interpreter