If the NYC MTA opened up their schedule data as a free and unrestricted API, what would you do with it? What would be the best way to use this data? What calls would you want to see included in the API?

What is the most amazing DIYcity idea you've got? The thing you've been thinking about building for years, or something just off the top of your head right now. Let's have it.

The first response to DIYcity Challenge #1 was TrafficTweet, a Twitter bot that allows people in NYC to tweet updates to each other about traffic conditions. See DIYcity post about it here: http://diycity.org/challenge-response/first-response-diycity-challenge-1...

Good idea - what are some ways this could be made more useful to people?

What would keep you from using it?

Hopefully we'll have the site rigged soon to allow people to reply to these threads directly from their email, but for now to post a reply to a thread, you've got to come to the site, log in, and post your message.

Bear with us, and make that extra effort to come to the site to post for now. The results are going to be good...

Hey guys,

We've created a Facebook fan page for you to keep track of events such as meet-ups and conferences, connect to other DIYcity users, and see videos tutorials of applications developed here on DIYcity.org. You should be able to find the fan page under non-profits or websites. Please join us, we'd love to see you!

Cheers,

Chris Allison

Does anyone know of transit agencies or private transit operators that are providing open API access to either a) schedule or b) real-time location for buses, trains, ferries or any other kind of vehicles?

Will collate and post summary.
Thanks

I wanted to welcome and call others' attention to the new groups that have popped up in the past week representing cities around the world.

I started a group here with a Milwaukee focus because that's where I am, and I have a few friends involved in improving the local government data infrastructure, which determines what can be done (by anyone) with that data.

But of course this is an international, universally relevant issue today, though it is motivated locally by the particularity of local issues. (See the Open Government Data group: http://groups.google.com/group/open-government )

Some ideas for posting here and starting a discussion:

*What is your interest in open government data, in general and for where you live?

*What are some of the technical and political issues you want to learn about?

*What do you already know that you can share with others?

Looking to meetup soon and discuss the potential of the ideas presented by DIYcity in College Station. Start brainstorming and give feedback for good dates to meet.

It somehow feels like a new world out there today, so it's fitting DIYcity has its first user-submitted app! Traffictweet, created by Andy Weissman, is a twitter bot that lets people broadcast current traffic conditions to others listening in. Subscribe to it, broadcast messages about traffic, and receive messages sent by others.

Nice.

The app is pretty general of course. It would be useful to have different twitter feeds set up for different cities, for starters, and then you could segment it further several different ways to minimize noise to users. Still, this is a great first step for trying out and moving forward with. Kudos to Andy.

I just subscribed to the feed and am going to start playing around with it. If you're interested, you should do the same.

Or else take the idea one step further and build something better.