Collaboration with DAN

[Dirk Hohndel]

On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 10:03:51AM +0200, Willem Ferguson wrote:
> I thought that I will just let you know what I am doing and hope that it
> meets with your approval. I initiated correspondence with Divers Alert
> Network about their Project Dive Exploration (PDE). I am inquiring about the
> way dive log software can currently contribute to this project of theirs.
> PDE is connected to a few of their other medical research initiatives.

IIRC, this requires exporting dives in the D7 format.
That format makes UDDF seem sane. It's completely wacko. And having talked
to someone who went through the painful process of creating D7 export that
met DAN's approval (because apparently it is NOT enough to implement the
standard, you need to implement something that their ancient mainframe
software can parse, which is different yet again), I'm quite certain I
have no interest in redirecting developer resources to that.

> The basic mechanism of PDE is that the diver completes a short medical
> questionnaire 48h after a dive/dive trip. The dive profile, as well as the
> completed questionnaire is then sent to DAN. I will CC you if any
> substantial discussion arises from this correspondence. ok?

Feel free to Cc me, but my comment to them will be that if they want people
to contribute to their research effort, THEY should invest in an import
algorithm that can parse popular formats. Maybe something like UDDF.

> The conceptual approach is that a diver activates a willingness to take part
> in the project. If so, the software notifies the diver when 48h have elapsed
> since the last dive. A questionnaire is offered that is sent to DAN in an
> automated way.

That part is easy. It's the dive log that's hard. Which is so ironic.

/D