Proposal for a hydrographic / sonar surveying wikibook

I said it before in a recent post. Why are the basic references books on the order of $400? Why are many basic specifications documents not free and open? For example, I can't believe the ship noise measurement specifications (ASA S12.64 PART 1) are paywalled. I once sat down with the IHO CAT A requirements and so many of the requirements made little sense... one that sticks in my mind: "Upload data on the internet." So what, my students have to email me an attachment sometime during their program? They probably were thinking something along the lines of using ftp, but really? We need an open / collaborative text. And where is our master list of CAT A programs? We need open discussions about what skills rather than just which big commercial package students need to be able to push the buttons for. I want my former students who are at sea to be able to debug a system that is giving them poor grids out of Caris/Hypack/mbsystem/etc (and this could be from so many factors) and to even know how to realize that the BAGs they are delivering to be archived are buggered. I love it when I hear about people in the field solving problems and getting on with collecting awesome data.

My contribution so far includes my 32 hour lecture series, but that doesn't even put a dent in the issue: research tools 2011. But, I'm missing so many key topics, it seriously pains me.

Perhaps wikibook based off of the topics in the IHO CAT A specifications document would be interesting to the community?

S-5_Ed_11.0.1_06May2011_Standards-Hydro.pdf:

Examples:

B2.4
Communication Tools and Internet
PP 
Cat A and B: Explain the networking concepts underlying Internet and
intranet communications.  Describe the features, resources and
security issues of the Internet.  Conduct searches for specialized
information using Internet tools.

Cat A: Explain the different Internet access modes, and their
bandwidths.  Upload hydrographic information to a web page.

So for uploading, can I just dump a bag on a random file share service? What are the writers of this looking for?

B2.5
Database and Information Systems
FF
Cat A and B: Define different types of database management systems,
and explain the architecture, functions and operations provided by
each.

Cat A: Describe the development of an information system, built upon
database management software.  Explain the special requirements of
geospatial information systems.

What the heck do you mean by an information system? [begin snark] Oh yes... I fire up Apple's stickie notes program and cover my screen in them. I make it geospatial, by arranging the stickies in the shape of continents. [end snark]

B2.3 Programming
PF
Cat a and B: Describe software development procedures: statement of
requirements, interface design, algorithm development, flowcharts and
pseudo code.  Define syntax, data types and structures, control
structures, arrays, pointers, functions, and file processing
procedures for a modern programming language, such as Visual Basic,
Visual C++, or Java.

Cat A: Write computer programs using a modern programming language, to
solve practical problems.

WTF? Because "Visual C++" is a language? Well, maybe Microsoft's compiler is that broken. And you are going to talk about pointers without writing code? I can teach programming for scientists without ever talking about pointers. Enter scipy/numpy/ipython. I'd rather talk about numerical stability with floating point numbers.

And I'll leave you with:

Operate common application software systems such as [an] internet browser.

Really? Who writes this stuff?