A leading and popular journalist in the open data space is Alexander Howard, Government 2.0 Washington D.C. correspondent for O’Reilly Media (at the date of this post, Alex had a mere 76,905 Twitter followers). Do a Google search on the man and you’ll find a trove of interesting stories spanning the open data and wider Gov 2.0 worlds.
Among Alex’s various articles is a piece that appeared in Huffpost Tech on 5 March 2011, Transit data drives economic engine for open government. In it, he explained how ‘technologists, train fans, government workers and East Coast civic hackers in the United States had gathered for a sold out unconference at the New York Law School Institute for Information Law and Policy to discuss how the modern transit system could be improved, focusing on the intersection between technology, citizens, public data and government’.
The utility that can be generated from that intersection, including through the release of government (often local government) data, is evident in the following passages from Alex’s piece (my emphasis):
“For passionate civic advocates like Laurel Ruma, a colleague at O’Reilly Media, getting real-time transit data in Boston was better than winning the World Series… . The decision to release and support open transit data online has spawned a new ecosystem of mobile applications, many of which are featured at MBTA.com. The addition of real-time transit data could add more value to the apps offering help for MBTA riders that went online in 2009, like the Mass Transit app that has been making money for SparkFish Creative.
It’s that kind of economic value creation combined with civic utility and accountability that has many people in the open government community excited. ‘Transportation has been a breakout segment of the “Gov 2.0” space over the last several years — it’s an issue with direct impacts on every citizen, and an area where we are seeing tons of innovation right now,’ said Nick Grossman, director of civic works at OpenPlans. ‘Agencies are re-thinking their tech and data strategies, entrepreneurs and “civic hackers” are building tools at a furious rate, and the public is benefiting in tangible ways.’”
Perhaps even more telling than these passages is the video from Streetfilms.org which Alex added to his piece and which is reproduced here:
Alex’s piece and the Streetfilms video make it abundantly clear (if it wasn’t already) that the open release by local government and other organisations of their transportation data, particularly real time feeds, is likely to result in the generation of significant economic and social value.
Stumbling across Alex’s article reminded me of a local initiative here in New Zealand that we looked at when working on the New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing framework, namely, Orsome Software’s MetroInfo iphone application, first released in 2008 for those living in Christchurch. In the company’s own words, it decided to knock “up a quick app that lets you see just how long it will be before the bus gets to a particular stop”.
It seems inevitable that more and more of these genuinely useful apps will surface in the coming months and years. As winter looms where I live, I hope it won’t be long before an app emerges that can tell me whether my evening bus will be on time or 15 minutes late…
