Open data roundup

Bits are flying in the open transit data discussion.  Maybe I am biased, but it appears that a consensus is growing that free, readily-available, standards-based transit data is good for citizens, passengers and transit agencies.

Here’s a roundup of recent coverage.  Sorry I haven’t been posting more; I’ve been very busy helping more agencies join Google Transit.

• I Bus, I Bike, iPhone: The Portland weekly newsrag, the Mercury, covers how TriMet’s pioneering in open data has made transit data available in more places on the web and in mobile devices.
• Who owns transit data? CNET compares the NY MTA, San Francisco MUNI, and Portland TriMet approaches to sharing schedule and arrival data.
• Does NextBus own MUNI real-time arrival times? Streetsblog San Francisco jumps into the very public discussion about/between Routesy, the NextBuses, Apple, and SF MUNI about who owns predicted bus arrivals.
• Muni App Makers, Rejoice: MTA, Apple Disputes Private Company’s Claims To Own Arrival Data: This story was well covered by the SF Appeal.  It’s cool when geeky topics get this kind of coverage (ditto for the TriMet story in the Mercury).
• The Open Planning Project had a meetup on getting more open data (specifically for NYC) and put their notes online.