Help me figure out a solution to a (not so unique) problem.

My research group has gps devices attached to migratory animals. Every once in a while, a research tech will be within range of an animal and will get the chance to download all the logged points. Each individual spits out a single dbf and new locations are just appended to the end (so the file is just cumulative).

These data need to be shared among a research group. Everyone else (besides me) wants to use access, so they can make small edits and prefer that interface. They do not like using MySQL.

The solution I came up with is:

a) The person who downloads the file goes to a web page, enters animal ID into a form, chooses .dbf file and uploads to a mysql database on the server (I still have to write php code to read the dbf and write sql insert statements from it).

b) Everyone syncs from their local access database to the server. (This is natively possible from access but very clunky).

Is there a tool (preferably open source), that can compare a access table to mysql table and sync the two (both ways)?

Alternatively, does anyone have a more elegant solution?

The ultimate goal is to allow everyone to have access to the most current data on their computers using their preferred database app.