OC Transpo backtracks on bus GPS release
Posted Jan 26, 2012 By Laura Mueller
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EMC News - OC Transpo thinks it's a better idea to make money off live GPS transit data than to release it openly to the public, the city's transit commission heard at a meeting on Jan. 17.
Kanata EMC file
OC Transpo head Alain Mercier told the transit commission that the city stands to make more money by not releasing bus-location information as open data.
Previously, OC Transpo general manager Alain Mercier promised the bus location information would be released as "open data" when the transit agency could ensure its accuracy through technology upgrades.
Despite promising that information would be open to the public as recently at December, Mercier now says he will leave the decision up to the transit commission. The group will be charged with deciding what's more important: potential advertising revenue from the only mobile app that can show real-time bus locations, or the city's commitment to transparency through its open data initiative.
An OC Transpo marketing plan says the transit agency could stand to raise $1.1 million by 2014 by leveraging the real-time bus-location data.
That dilemma won't face the commission for another few months (likely in the summer), as OC Transpo awaits information from the market and advertisers about how much transit advertising opportunities - including ads on an app - are worth to them.
The loss of potential revenue isn't the only cost of making the data open, said Robert Delage, an OC Transpo technology manager who explained the issue to transit commissioners.
The bus-location information would be the first "live" open data stream the city would provide (all other streams are static), and there is a cost involved with maintaining that type of information and hosting it, Delage said.
Developing an app to interpret the data requires "deep knowledge" of the transit system, Delage said.
The city did release a bus-location data briefly during its Apps4Ottawa contest in 2010 and early 2011, and transit apps were very popular: "Where is My Bus?," an app developed by Nepean resident Jonathan Rudenberg, won the people's choice award. But some other bus apps didn't work and left OC Transpo to field calls about the bad information they were putting out to the public, Delage said.
But that message from Delage and Mercier came under harsh criticism from some commissioners, including Kanata North Coun. Marianne Wilkinson and Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney (the former and current heads of the city's information technology subcommittee).
They decried OC Transpo's move away from its previous commitment to release the open data and challenged the notion that preventing public access to the information could make the city more money.
If the city's app, which it intends to release before any bus-location data would be made public if the commission approves, is better than other developer's apps, it will make more money off advertising, Wilkinson said.
Tierney has examined other models, including the system used in Winnipeg, and he said he doesn't see a correlation between open data and lost revenue.
OC Transpo has an advantage because it is in the best position to integrate additional information about bus cancellations and other special messages with the GPS data in its app, so the transit agency already has an advantage that will guarantee it can attract more advertising than other apps, Tierney said.
He disagreed with the change in direction he heard from commission chair Coun. Diane Deans (Gloucester-Southgate) and Mercier, and the IT subcommittee chairman said he would not back down on this issue.
In the future, Tierney said he would prefer to see another member of the commission's four-person working group on technology issues deliver updates on that group's work to the full commission, rather than Deans.
Those statements were good news for Open Data Ottawa, an advocacy group that has been pushing for the release of bus-location info.
Alex Lougheed, the group's spokesperson, said open data and revenue aren't mutually exclusive, and he was disappointed to hear the issue framed that way by OC Transpo.
He suggested the city could keep more money in its pocket by ditching a plan to develop its own transit app - a costly process - and leave private developers to do that.
Opening the data is a great way to increase confidence in the transit system and make it easier to use, Lougheed said, and that will help OC Transpo achieve its main goal of increasing ridership.
In fact, just a 0.5 per cent increase in ridership would generate the same amount of money OC Transpo hoped to raised through monetizing the GPS data, Lougheed claimed.
He encouraged anyone who is concerned about this issue to contact their city councillor, transit commissioners and the mayor and make their voices heard.
laura.mueller@metroland.com
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