Fast-tracked open data projects boost Transport for NSW app cred

Government organisations considering how to engage with developers wanting real-time data sets may find inspiration in the example of Transport for NSW (TfNSW), which has directly addressed complaints over past limited data access by fast-tracking six train-related application development projects through its App Hot House project.

Held over the weekend of 16-17 February, the App Hot House brought together TfNSW developers and a number of eager app developers, which were whittled from an initial shortlist of 20 to just six developers through an intensive process of brainstorming and pitching.

Two months later, the resulting apps have already gone live – and Rupert Hanson, one of the six developers to make the final list, couldn’t be happier with both the final result and the process by which it was built.

“It has been an absolutely fabulous process,” he told GTR, “and a fast track to market. It’s a real credit to the government people involved, and the technical strength of the people the government chose to work with, that we managed to get it done as quickly as we did.”

By encouraging and facilitating participation by six keen transport-app makers, App Hot House created “a very collegial atmosphere among the developers,” Hanson added.

“You could talk to the engineers at Railcorp that run the system, and get a deeper understanding of what’s going on – and that access has remained open ever since. It’s really good to be able to have that dialogue with key people in government, to effect change with the systems and to gain access to get such a depth of knowledge.”

The data sets provided for the six applications – which include Hanson’s Triptastic as well as SkedGo’s TripGo, Grofsoft’s TripView, Riverstone Labs’ Arrivo Sydney, Small Potion’s Hidden City and Quentin Zervaas’ TransitTimes+ – have been long sought-after by developers, many of whom have chafed at the government’s past efforts to limit third-party application development.

Three years ago, Grofsoft principal Nick Maher was nearly sued for copyright infringement by RailCorp after building an app that gave commuters real-time train info.

With a new government in place and state-sanctioned developer competitions gradually opening up data sets that many argue should be freely available, however, Hanson is happy with the state’s progress towards providing real-time data – and appreciates the reasons for a slow-and-steady approach that has earned it the ire of developers who were excluded from what they called an “anti-competitive” App Hot House effort.

“This is early on from a development perspective,” Hanson explained. “TfNSW don’t have unlimited resources, and I don’t see how this could have scaled up to support everyone who wanted to be part of the process, without sacrificing quality."

"This was a project to support six developer teams each running their own server infrastructure, but it would have been entirely different had it been open slather for anyone who wanted to hit their servers hard.”

By designing the incubation program to limit access to a small number of developers, TfNSW had managed to ensure the quality of delivered services whilst learning how to engage with developers in a productive and proactive way.

“This was an early access program, and we’re working with them to get the feeds good, right, and scalable," he explained. "I know for a fact this is not the end of the project: there are a whole bunch of [TfNSW] engineers focused on the rail and bus side, and they’re still working hard on improving both the quality and coverage of the data.”

In the long term, Hanson expects an expansion of the open-data initiative will extend to other developers – but notes the TfNSW developers want to ensure a smooth transition rather than disappointing commuters with an overloaded or inappropriate data set.

“Once the systems are bedded down, and the government are more confident in offering public feeds without the need to offer technical support, they will do so,” he said. “I can totally understand what they’re doing with this project. In the meantime, it’s just a case of watching and waiting.” – David Braue