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It would probably be better just to expose weather and tube schedule information as JSON and allow third party developers to use it. AFAIK this already happens
by jiggy2011 14y ago
It would probably be better just to expose weather and tube schedule information as JSON and allow third party developers to use it.
AFAIK this already happens to some extent.
- potatolicious 14y agoSort of. I'm all for open access and government data behind APIs, but it also leads to some level of unfairness. In NYC for example the MTA has opened subway schedules and (on some lines) live arrival estimates via API, which has led to an explosion of commercial applications. So taxpayers have to either pay a private entity for access to public data, or download scummy "free" apps and have it hoover up their private data. Opening up APIs should not preclude the government from building its own frontends, in whatever format makes sense.
- jiggy2011 14y agoSure, I didn't mean to suggest that the government should not provide any front end at all. After all outputting a simple HTML page with the same data in addition to a JSON dump should not be a difficult task in any sane web development architecture. However if you want app for your iphone 6 that integrates with the wardrobe planner that tells you what to wear when it is wet outside I think it is reasonable to let that development be funded privately.