The use of Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) is becoming an increasingly important tool in both marine mammal research and applied in industry. It is important that individuals using any passive acoustic monitoring software are properly trained to use the software to maximise its full potential. Feedback from users is also important in the ongoing development of such software. PAMGUARD is currently funded by the OGP E&P Sound and Marine Life Joint Industry Program and has been established to address the fundamental limitations of existing cetacean passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) software capabilities. PAMGUARD seeks to provide open-source PAM software based on a platform-independent (e.g. Windows or Linux), flexible, modular architecture. The open-source aspect of software development is facilitated through the project's presence on SourceForge, where a community of altruistic developers provides extra resources. This community currently includes developers with proven PAM experience from both the UK and the USA. Open development means that the software is free and access to the code is easy and assured. It also allows the code's copyright to be protected in perpetuity so that it cannot readily be closed and commercialised to the detriment of its users. It ultimately means that more people have access for development. This generally speeds up innovations and improves the performance and maintainability of the code. SMRU Ltd are running a PAMGUARD training course on 25th and 26th November 2010 in St Andrews. The course will be lead by Dr Doug Gillespie of St Andrews University, one of the principle architects of the Pamguard software. If you are interested in attending the course please see the Pamguard website for further details: http://www.pamguard.org/training.shtml <http://www.pamguard.org/training.shtml> and to register your interest in attending the course, please email info@smru.co.uk <mailto:info@smru.co.uk> Best wishes Fiona Fiona Skilbeck Office Manager SMRU Limited Scottish Oceans Institute New Technology Centre North Haugh ST ANDREWS Fife KY16 9SR T: + 44 (0)1334 479100 F: + 44 (0)1334 477878 E: info@smru.co.uk W: www.smru.co.uk http://soi.st-andrews.ac.uk <http://soi.st-andrews.ac.uk/> P Please consider whether you really need a hard copy of this email before printing it - thank you. NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY: This message, and any attachments, are intended solely for the addressee and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you believe that you have received this email in error, please contact the sender immediately and destroy this email. Although we have taken steps to ensure that this email and any attachments are free from any virus, we advise that, in keeping with good computing practice, the recipient should ensure they are actually virus free. SMRU LIMITED is a limited company registered in Scotland, Registered Number: 296937. Registered Office: 5 Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh EH3 8EJ.