Volunteer
Citizen Scientist
First and foremost, you can volunteer as a citizen scientist. Not only can you listen for whales to marvel at the symphony of sounds they make, but also you can listen *for* whales — helping to monitor their habitat and notifying the network when you hear them or a noise that could endanger them.
In Person
You can also volunteer in-person with any of the current Orcasound network members, or with a new organization in your neighborhood that you convince to become a new member. Volunteer opportunities can include helping deploy or fix hydrophones, teaching groups how to “listen for whales,” or helping create a new educational or outreach project.
Volunteers are currently helping Orcasound take huge strides forward. Orca Network volunteers recently deployed a new hydrophone node at Bush Point and built an amazing ocean listening exhibit in Langley out of an antique telephone booth. At the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, volunteers are refurbishing hydrophones and installing new computer equipment to bring their node back online. At educational nodes, volunteers teach the public about acoustic ecology and ocean noise pollution using Orcasound recordings, live audio, and other data products.
For Developers
A growing team of volunteer developers and talented consultants are building and improving Orcasound. Some are developing the open-source software that captures and conveys ocean sounds. Others are pioneering the DIY, low-cost hydrophone and computer hardware that allows humans to listen to marine soundscapes in more and more places.
OrcaSound Web App
Democracy Lab Hackathon
Our crowning jewel is the Orcasound web app — a suite of new cloud- and browser-based ways for citizen scientists and artificial intelligence to listen for whales in real-time. As of April, 2020, this is the Orcasound tech stack:
- Orcanode: Linux-based ADC with live-streaming
- Bush Point & Port Townsend: ffmpeg+s3fs in a bash script
- Orcasound Lab: testing new Python script using ffmpeg+boto+/-redis
- Orcasite: front- and back-end of the Orcasound app
- backend is an Elixir app using the Phoenix framework.
- the Phoenix app serves a React app
- Public site — live.orcasound.net
Current Roadmap
From hydrophone to headphone, this is how we intend to deliver an ocean of sound! 2020 Roadmap: components above the gray dashed line launched November 1, 2018; green features are being beta-tested since November 2019; red features are in development or requested. Click to view expanded image.
If you’re based in the Pacific Northwest, you can work with Orcasound in-person at a hackathon (see the Orcasound project at DemocracyLab). No matter where you are, you can find out how to volunteer with us by going to our GitHub page and subscribe to the Orcasound dev email distribution list to find a place to contribute your talents. We hope you will share your expertise and innovations with us, and maybe even earn your way into the Orcasound Hacker Hall of Fame!
Memorandum Of Agreement
The real-time audio streams, citizen science projects, educational materials, and outreach projects of Orcasound are brought to you by the current network members, listed below, who have e-signed the 2021-2025 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). Any organization or individual is welcome to join the network (for free!), either as the host of a hydrophone node, a researcher or citizen scientist, an educator/activist, or a general volunteer.
If you're an individual wanting to volunteer, collaborate, or donate, check out the many ways you can support Orcasound. Everyone can listen for whales, and learn the diverse sounds of the Salish Sea.
If you're an organization wanting to join the network as the host of a new hydrophone node, an educational/outreach node, or both — just read the history, mission, and vision of the network, e-sign the MOA, and then email info@orcasound.net to begin collaborating. There are no membership fees — just benefits, roles, and responsibilities.
Donate
Help us and our Orcasound network members by making charitable contribution to our partners, many of whom are 501(c)3 organizations Check out the link below to help strengthen and grow our network, while supporting our on-going conservation, research, and educational efforts.
You can also directly support the many dedicated volunteers who help Orcasound keep running and improve over time. Take a look at our Hacker hall of fame and our Github repositories and consider sponsoring the work of our most-dedicated contributors.
