[Open-transport] Open Data Public Transport List?

Thu Jul 18 12:05:57 UTC 2013

Just to say I think this is a great idea (I should say as I'm not a
super-expert I can't comment on prior art).

I imagine a start would be a simple spreadsheet (?). As a straw man I've
booted a gdocs spreadsheet
here<https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqR8dXc6Ji4JdHlCTXhkeTlvSm1qS1RwZjRBUk1aemc#gid=0>(world-editable).
Getting the fields right would seem the first thing to do:

Rufus

PS: it would also have good connections with Open Data
Census<http://census.okfn.org/>where we'd like to start recording
format info on transport questions).

On 18 July 2013 12:42, Patrick Wolowicz <patrick at subzero.eu> wrote:

> In my opinion, one of the important things that is missing (correct me if
> I'm wrong) is a list of public transport authorities that provide their
> data as open data and which API they use. While there are hundreds of
> transport authorities, there's actually only a handful of APIs.
>
> There's a rudimentary list here: http://www.citygoround.org/agencies/ .
> Unfortunately it's very untechnical, it doesn't contain information on
> which API is provided (GTFS, MDV, Hacon, etc) nor where one can find
> documentation about the API.
>
> Why would such a list be important?
>
> 1) It would allow the open data community to see which APIs are most used.
> If someone is considering writing a converter between one API to another,
> the developer could see which regions would be covered and which APIs the
> developer can test against.
> 2) The list could be used to demonstrate how wide spread public transport
> open data is when talking to officials in areas where the APIs are still
> closed.
> 3) There are already developers (like me) out there that have programmed
> apps/services for their open data region and would love to provide their
> apps/services in other open data regions. At the moment we have to google
> the region we're interested in and maybe find a website with information
> about the existing API buried deep inside the transport authorities web
> page. Often these pages are in the regional language making it hard for
> developers to find/read them. A centralised list would lead to a quicker
> adaptation of these open data APIs. More apps would be available in more
> regions, to more people, demonstrating the benefits of open data for every
> day use.
>
> So my question is has anyone in the open data transport community started
> such a list and if yes, could we put it up on the web for everyone (for
> example on https://github.com/OpenTransport)? Or if not, can we start one?
>
> Best regards,
> Patrick Wolowicz
> http://subzero.eu/wann
> _______________________________________________
> open-transport mailing list
> open-transport at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-transport
> Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/open-transport
>

-- 
*

Rufus Pollock

Founder and Executive Director | skype: rufuspollock |
@rufuspollock<https://twitter.com/rufuspollock>

The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>

Empowering through Open Knowledge
http://okfn.org/ | @okfn <http://twitter.com/OKFN> | OKF on
Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/OKFNetwork>|
Blog <http://blog.okfn.org/>  |  Newsletter<http://okfn.org/about/newsletter>

*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/open-transport/attachments/20130718/8a852a11/attachment.html>