FW Editor: What are your plans for the near future?
Daniel Allen Prust: To take SAOSIS.org to the next level by expanding the framework so that it does more than just read and write entries.

FW Editor: How and when did you start writing the code for SAOSIS.org?
Daniel Allen Prust: I started writing code back in August 2009 when I realized that a lot of the understanding I gained about Bioinformatics was starting to slip away because I started a new job in banking. I found I loved it too much to let it slip away, so I decided to reverse that trend by attempting to create the software I wish I had while working in the field of Bioinformatics. My passion for it has only grown since.

FW Editor: Do you plan to develop new software, or are you more focused on optimizing the current ones?
Daniel Allen Prust: I am 100% committed to continuing to build SAOSIS.org. It is beyond fun and the more I work on it, the more I discover what I don't know, and a vast landscape of things to learn is Heaven to me. In fact, it is a dream of mine to compliment my Master of Software Engineering degree with an advanced degree in Biology: perhaps Biochemistry, which at the time of this writing, fascinates me the most. I'm hoping life will present the opportunity to pursue such a thing, but we live in a wondrous age where we can buy books like "Genomes 3" by T.A. Brown on Amazon.com and just dig-in, or download podcasts from Berkeley and listen-in on some of the best lectures available. Even if my age and responsibilities make it impossible to go back to school, at least I can go out get everything but the hands-on lab knowledge.

FW Editor: How can you describe in just a few words SAOSIS.org?
Daniel Allen Prust: The wheel you do not have to re-invent just to read, write, and convert EMBLBank, GenBank, DDBJ, HLA, and FASTA files.

FW Editor: From your point of view, which is the strongest SAOSIS.org feature? Why?
Daniel Allen Prust: The ability to convert between the formats. By loading data into a model that does not need to know where the data comes from, and having the ability to write from that model into any format, conversion becomes natural.

FW Editor: What new features should we expect in SAOSIS.org in the future? How do you plan to improve it?
Daniel Allen Prust: Plans are to create views that a Life Sciences organization can use to build applications quickly, perform more complex functions like alignments, virtualize sequences so that they can cover entire genomes without running out of memory, and perhaps even create a database design to hold these entries. Right now, I'm starting work on an annotator like Sequin.

FW Editor: Is there any customer support service for the SAOSIS.org clients? If not, do you plan to create one in the future?
Daniel Allen Prust: Sourceforge.net provides the kind of tools that helps to build a community that supports each other. Because the software is open source and free in every way thanks to the GPL, users are not locked-out of the code and prevented from making contributions of their own. I hope that, eventually, a community of academics and researchers will actively help to shape the future of SAOSIS.org. The only way that will happen, however, is if they download it and find it makes their life easier. I hope SAOSIS.org exceeds their expectations.

FW Editor: As a closure to our interview, is there any message you would like to send to the SAOSIS.org users?
Daniel Allen Prust: SAOSIS.org needs your feedback to become the framework that makes your life easy. There is much to do and with your help, SAOSIS.org will grow into something great and, maybe even change the world!