Apps for Cash: London's Transit Officials Release Data for Commercial Use
BY Nick Judd | Friday, June 18 2010
Transport for London, the entity responsible for London's Tube and bus service, announced earlier this week that developers are now free to build commercial applications on top of its open data.
The Guardian writes that it noted two weeks ago that data was available for developers, but at the time, no one outside of TfL was allowed to make commercial use of TfL data unless they had prior permission.
That's a departure from the way things work on this side of the Atlantic. Here in New York, for example, BigApps contest submissions are required to be free for a year. But in general, public data is in the public domain — people stateside can, for the most part, use it commercially if they wish.
"TfL accepts the developers need to recover their costs and derive a return from their time in creating new applications," said Chris MacLeod, TfL's director of group marketing, according to a TfL press release.
"This move will ensure that developers will be able to produce products independently and provide customers with a wide range of up-to-date applications and services," he added.
On his blog at data.london.gov.uk, Greater London Authority Policy Director for Economic Development Anthony Browne linked to data available, including station locations, live traffic cameras, and riverboat timetables. He wrote that data on bus stops and bus routes were in progress.