Comments on: When the Propellor heads play with public transport.. http://www.edparsons.com/2007/09/when-the-propellor-heads-play-with-public-transport/ The blog of Ed Parsons, Geographer. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:11:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Home http://www.edparsons.com/2007/09/when-the-propellor-heads-play-with-public-transport/#comment-994 Home Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:26:31 +0000 http://www.edparsons.com/?p=532#comment-994 These are the kind of applications that can make a difference in mobile marketing while most of the applications we currently see for mobile are just useless These are the kind of applications that can make a difference in mobile marketing while most of the applications we currently see for mobile are just useless

]]> By: Duncan Garratt http://www.edparsons.com/2007/09/when-the-propellor-heads-play-with-public-transport/#comment-995 Duncan Garratt Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:02:20 +0000 http://www.edparsons.com/?p=532#comment-995 Putting mobile location based data on Google Maps in the form of an API for public transport I think is an excellent idea and one that could prove extremely important as life styles are forced to change due to global warning. The BBC back stage project is a good example of (http://bbc.blueghost.co.uk/site4.php) using Google Maps and sharing transport related information. With a few enhancements on the programming side and additional server resources this prototype could easily be turned into an extremely useful application. I very much see the inclusion of mobile location based data such as where individual busses, trains, aircraft, and ferries are in geographic terms, and their routes as a natural extension of Google Maps and Virtual Earth. If a dual API was produced both for the transport companies for uploading their data including real-time GPRS data and an API for application developers to display the published information on a World wide basis the two giants of the software market would clean up. Independence could still be maintained for vendors as they could customise their applications using the API, yet receive the vast benefits of a central data repository (Intelligent Search Engine). Clearing of bookings and credit card transactions could also be done centrally. This would revolutionise travel and would allow for example hotel and attraction proprietors or indeed anyone to build their own location-based travel booking system within their web pages and gain valuable extra revenue. From a users point of view the benefits would be extreme convenience as they could make their travel arrangements preferable via public transport on the site containing the location based hotel, attraction, or location they plan to visit without then have to surf to book a train ticket followed by a flight ticket the another train ticket and finally followed by a bus. If this could also be done via mobile devices as well as browser all the better, there is no technological reason why it can’t, in fact from a purely technological point of view there is absolutely no reason why this can’t be done today using existing programming technology. The economic benefits of this convenience would be enormous and the environmental benefits would go a long way in combating climate change and the life-changing move to a more sustainable life style. Duncan Garratt http://www.gis-logic.co.uk/ Putting mobile location based data on Google Maps in the form of an API for public transport I think is an excellent idea and one that could prove extremely important as life styles are forced to change due to global warning. The BBC back stage project is a good example of (http://bbc.blueghost.co.uk/site4.php) using Google Maps and sharing transport related information. With a few enhancements on the programming side and additional server resources this prototype could easily be turned into an extremely useful application.

I very much see the inclusion of mobile location based data such as where individual busses, trains, aircraft, and ferries are in geographic terms, and their routes as a natural extension of Google Maps and Virtual Earth. If a dual API was produced both for the transport companies for uploading their data including real-time GPRS data and an API for application developers to display the published information on a World wide basis the two giants of the software market would clean up.

Independence could still be maintained for vendors as they could customise their applications using the API, yet receive the vast benefits of a central data repository (Intelligent Search Engine). Clearing of bookings and credit card transactions could also be done centrally. This would revolutionise travel and would allow for example hotel and attraction proprietors or indeed anyone to build their own location-based travel booking system within their web pages and gain valuable extra revenue.

From a users point of view the benefits would be extreme convenience as they could make their travel arrangements preferable via public transport on the site containing the location based hotel, attraction, or location they plan to visit without then have to surf to book a train ticket followed by a flight ticket the another train ticket and finally followed by a bus. If this could also be done via mobile devices as well as browser all the better, there is no technological reason why it can’t, in fact from a purely technological point of view there is absolutely no reason why this can’t be done today using existing programming technology. The economic benefits of this convenience would be enormous and the environmental benefits would go a long way in combating climate change and the life-changing move to a more sustainable life style.

Duncan Garratt
http://www.gis-logic.co.uk/

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