The Open Data Team are starting a blog. We will be publishing articles discussing and explaining various topics from datasets, innovation challenges to how we do things within the team. This is a blog not just for developers but for anyone interested in open data and also for our customers, the citizens of NSW. We love talking all things open data and innovation and want to give you more of an insight into what we do, what our aim is and clarify some of the more complex things we deal with in our data and processes. Before we get into it we would like to tell you a bit more about us....
Our drive for open data and innovation has created a wonderful community of developers and others who are very passionate not only in open data but also public transport. We engage with our open data community in many ways including Twitter and our open data forum. Our forum is a great place where you can share ideas, ask for help, request data and keep up to date with what’s going in transport open data and innovation. In December 2017 our Open Data Hub reached more than 6,000 registered users and our API gateway recorded its 900th million hit.
The TfNSW Open Data and Innovation team manages everything that touches the Open Data Hub but we also do much more than that. We hunt down data to load onto our website, both from other departments and what the developer community request. The best way to request new data is on our open data forum using the ‘Request for data” post category. We also work closely with the operational teams to ensure that our data feeds are always up to date and available. Continual improvement of our feeds and data is also something we work on so that real-time information is as accurate as possible.
Innovation is also a big part of what we do in conjunction with the Future Transport program. We conduct innovation challenges throughout the year where users and developers are challenged to use our data to build apps, products or provide insights. The innovation challenges vary in a wide range of topics, in the past year we’ve had some focused on Bluetooth beacons, carpooling, improving travel choices, smart cities and accessibility. You can keep up with what’s coming up on our Twitter account and innovation challenges page.
We’re also always on the lookout for innovative apps that make public transport easier and smarter. You can see all the apps we endorse in the product showcase on the home page of the Open Data Hub. The product showcase also has information about each app and download links. We’re in constant contact with the developers of the endorsed apps to keep customers informed and also improve our data for future use.
This is just a snapshot of the kind of work we do to keep Transport for NSW open data available, up to date, accurate and secure. We encourage you to register on the Open Data Hub, explore our data catalogue, learn how to use our data and build awesome apps!
- Alex Felman from the TfNSW Open Data Team