Collaboration Request – APSE Soundscape Ecology Project in the Majella National Park (Italy)

[gaetano87]

Dear Dr. Napier,

I hope this message finds you well. My name is Gaetano Cappella, and I am writing on behalf of Soundscapes of South Europe APS, a small grassroots association based in Lama dei Peligni, a tiny mountain village in the heart of the Majella National Park, in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

We have recently launched a European-funded project called APSE (Awareness through Participatory Soundscape Ecology). The aim is to engage young people in discovering the ecological value of sound and its deep connection with biodiversity, using participatory and sensory-based approaches grounded in soundscape listening.
Although our journey started in a very amateur way, we are now developing educational and environmental activities together with youth workers, educators, and researchers.

From July to October 2025, we will be collecting field recordings across our area, documenting natural and human soundscapes to raise awareness and build an open archive for both scientific and educational purposes.

We would like to kindly ask whether it would be possible to use your platform, LEAVES, to store and share our recordings.

We must humbly admit that we are facing some technical challenges in using the platform, as we are a small team with limited experience in such systems. Any guidance or minimal support you could offer would be deeply appreciated.

We sincerely thank you for your time and for your inspiring work with LEAVES, which is a true reference point for us. It would be an honor to collaborate in any way possible.

Warm regards,
Gaetano
Project Coordinator – APSE
Soundscapes of South Europe APS

[thomasnapier]

Dear Gaetano,

Thank you for reaching out and for your thoughtful message. It is great to hear about the APSE initiative and your commitment to engaging youth through soundscape ecology. I am glad that LEAVES has been of interest to your team. It is always encouraging to see the platform resonate with community-focused projects.

I would be happy to explore how LEAVES might support your goals. I should mention that LEAVES is designed as a local application. It does not include any cloud-based storage or sharing features. All data processing, visualization, and annotation occur on the user’s own machine. In this way, we can keep the tool open source and free for all. For a full overview of its capabilities and limitations, you can refer to the paper I authored here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2025.103026

To understand whether and how I might be able to support your project, would you mind sending through a bit more detail about the following?

1. How you plan to use LEAVES within APSE (for example, annotation, teaching, or community workshops)?
2. Whether you would require any technical support or setup assistance?
3. What kind of timeframe and outcomes you have in mind?
4. Whether the collaboration would involve shared outputs, acknowledgements, or funding?

Once I have a clearer picture of what is involved, I will be able to better assess what kind of support I can offer within my current commitments.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
Thomas Napier
E: thomas.napier@jcu.edu.au

[gaetano87]

Dear Thomas, Thank you so much for your interest in our project — I truly appreciate your time and your willingness to explore potential ways to collaborate. APSE is a small, self-funded initiative focused on non-formal education, created and carried out by a team of just three people. One of our main goals is to introduce participants — many of whom have no scientific or technical background — to the concept of soundscape ecology, not only as a way to better understand the environment, but also as a tool for personal and professional development, especially in rural or underrepresented areas. We aim to make the science of sound accessible to everyone: during a community workshop taking place from July 1st to 7th, we plan to explain what soundscapes are, how to identify biophonies, geophonies and anthropophonies, and how this data can tell us something meaningful about the health of our ecosystems. LEAVES would be a powerful tool to do this in a practical and engaging way. Since we don’t have technical backgrounds, we would need some support for the installation and basic setup. If the use of LEAVES requires a fee, we would be happy to receive a quote — that would allow us to look for additional resources or small-scale grants to support it. We are also very open to framing this collaboration as a shared process: any output produced using LEAVES will be credited and featured across all our communication channels (website, social media, reports, etc.). Furthermore, once we have some initial results, we’d love to explore future opportunities together — including potentially applying for a Horizon Europe grant. Thanks again for considering this — I’m really excited about the potential of this collaboration, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Warm regards, Gae on behalf of the APSE team Soundscapes of South Europe APS Giovedì 12 giugno 2025 alle ore 08:44:14 EEST, Thomas Napier ***@***.***> ha scritto: thomasnapier ha lasciato un commento (thomasnapier/LEAVES#2) Caro Gaetano, grazie per averci contattato e per il tuo messaggio premuroso. È bello sapere dell'iniziativa APSE e del tuo impegno nel coinvolgere i giovani attraverso l'ecologia del paesaggio sonoro. Sono lieto che LEAVES abbia interessato il tuo team. È sempre incoraggiante vedere la piattaforma entrare in sintonia con progetti incentrati sulla comunità. Sarei felice di scoprire come LEAVES potrebbe supportare i tuoi obiettivi. Vorrei sottolineare che LEAVES è progettata come applicazione locale. Non include funzionalità di archiviazione o condivisione basate su cloud. Tutta l'elaborazione dei dati, la visualizzazione e l'annotazione avvengono sul computer dell'utente. In questo modo, possiamo mantenere lo strumento open source e gratuito per tutti. Per una panoramica completa delle sue capacità e limitazioni, puoi fare riferimento al documento che ho scritto qui: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2025.103026. Per capire se e come potrei supportare il tuo progetto, potresti inviarmi maggiori dettagli su quanto segue:          1. Come intendi utilizzare LEAVES all'interno di APSE (ad esempio, annotazione, didattica o workshop comunitari)?          2. Se necessiti di supporto tecnico o assistenza per l'installazione?          3. Quali tempi e risultati hai in mente?          4. Se la collaborazione prevede risultati condivisi, riconoscimenti o finanziamenti?      Una volta che avrò un quadro più chiaro di ciò che è coinvolto, sarò in grado di valutare meglio il tipo di supporto che posso offrire nell'ambito dei miei impegni attuali. Non vedo l'ora di sentirti. Cordiali saluti, Thomas Napier E: ***@***.*** — Rispondi direttamente a questa email, visualizzala su GitHub o annulla l'iscrizione. Ricevi questa email perché sei l'autore del thread. ID messaggio: ***@***.***>