Comments on: Unofficial CTA APIs: Innovation on Borrowed Time? http://headwayblog.com/2008/12/14/unofficial-cta-apis/ Better living through transit innovation. Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:47:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Joe Hughes http://headwayblog.com/2008/12/14/unofficial-cta-apis/comment-page-1/#comment-421 Joe Hughes Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:45:22 +0000 http://headwayblog.com/?p=101#comment-421 Good writeup, Daniel. I'm glad to hear about the moves towards developer-friendliness at the CTA. Good writeup, Daniel. I’m glad to hear about the moves towards developer-friendliness at the CTA.

]]> By: DXO http://headwayblog.com/2008/12/14/unofficial-cta-apis/comment-page-1/#comment-420 DXO Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:36:19 +0000 http://headwayblog.com/?p=101#comment-420 See also here for a less technical take on the "API": <a href="http://www.derivativeworks.com/2009/01/h.html" rel="nofollow">"Harper Reed: "The power is not the mashup. It's the data."</a>. See also here for a less technical take on the “API”: “Harper Reed: “The power is not the mashup. It’s the data.”.

]]> By: Joe Hughes http://headwayblog.com/2008/12/14/unofficial-cta-apis/comment-page-1/#comment-405 Joe Hughes Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:15:56 +0000 http://headwayblog.com/?p=101#comment-405 "Easy Breezy", you bring up a good point about server load. As I pointed out in the article, Harper set up a caching proxy, in part to mitigate load on CTA/Clever servers. Is that kind of measure sufficient to alleviate your concerns? Incidentally, TriMet uses an <a href="http://developer.trimet.org/why_an_appid.shtml" rel="nofollow">API Key</a> to limit server load to something that they feel comfortable with, and I imagine that it wouldn't be hard for others to take a similar approach if that's truly the main concern about making the data available to more developers. “Easy Breezy”, you bring up a good point about server load. As I pointed out in the article, Harper set up a caching proxy, in part to mitigate load on CTA/Clever servers. Is that kind of measure sufficient to alleviate your concerns?

Incidentally, TriMet uses an API Key to limit server load to something that they feel comfortable with, and I imagine that it wouldn’t be hard for others to take a similar approach if that’s truly the main concern about making the data available to more developers.

]]> By: Easy Breezy http://headwayblog.com/2008/12/14/unofficial-cta-apis/comment-page-1/#comment-404 Easy Breezy Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:55:09 +0000 http://headwayblog.com/?p=101#comment-404 It appears you have outlined the distinction but not quite put your finger on it. For agencies that host their own feed, such as BART or Trimet, the incremental cost of supporting these efforts is fairly negligible. For agencies that have contracted with a third party to supply this service, the server load increase as a result of these efforts may in fact represent a very real operating cost increase. So I don't think its simply a matter of giving away something that could be sold, it could also wind up costing the transit agency something to support this R&D effort. It appears you have outlined the distinction but not quite put your finger on it. For agencies that host their own feed, such as BART or Trimet, the incremental cost of supporting these efforts is fairly negligible. For agencies that have contracted with a third party to supply this service, the server load increase as a result of these efforts may in fact represent a very real operating cost increase. So I don’t think its simply a matter of giving away something that could be sold, it could also wind up costing the transit agency something to support this R&D effort.

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