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Boost for London's Software Developer Community and SMEs as TfL lifts all restrictions on commercial reuse of its data

15TH JUNE 2010

Today's announcement by TfL that they have lifted all restrictions on the commercial reuse of their data will come as good news to the developer community. There is no doubt that this will provide a welcome economic boost to London’s SMEs and individual developers.

And according to Chris MacLeod, Director of Group Marketing at TfL, it’s just the beginning: "I hope that our announcement will result in new relationships between the open data community and TfL/London’s Datastore. We know from international experience that the majority of smartphone apps built on public data are focused around the reuse of public transport data."

From TfL’s point of view, it is important that they can harness innovation in the developer community to provide improved information that will benefit all Londoners. For an economic perspective for London, it's great that TfL have recognised the need for developers to recover their costs and gain a financial return from their investment in time, energy and talent.

The move has been welcomed in the technology sector. Talking to us about today's announcement Mike Butcher, Editor of TechCrunch Europe, said: "I'm delighted to see this latest release of data. It's moves like this on behalf of the Mayor's office that are helping to make London a showcase for how private sector technology startups and developers can start to leverage data to create products which benefit both the wider community and create jobs."

Today’s announcement on licensing coincides with the release of several new data sets both on the TfL developer page and feeds to live tube travel news, tube departure boards, tube station and tube line status on London's Datastore.

The London Datastore currently hosts the following travel-related data sets:

Linking to the TfL developer page:

Station Locations

TfL Pier Locations

Live Traffic Cameras

Oyster Ticket Stop Locations

Static files on GLA servers:

Cycle Hire Locations

London Underground Signals Passed at Danger

TfL Investment Programme

TfL Business Plan

Riverboat Timetables

We are currently working on further data sets to be released by 30th June. These include:

Bus Stops

Bus Routes

RODS Data (Rolling Origin and Destination Survey Data).

Data on bus timetables and schedules will follow.

We welcome your feedback so let us know your priority datasets and don’t forget to follow @londondatastore to keep up with alerts of further datasets to follow.

Anthony Browne

Mayoral Policy Director for Economic Development

Anthony Browne's blog
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You should use a decent writer to at least proofread your announcements. This is riddled with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Shocking.

Tue, 06/15/2010 14:20

Comment submitted by Mark

Excellent news. I'm aware of that getting to this point has been a lot of hard work, but it is very appreciated!

Here's hoping this sets a trend...

Tue, 06/15/2010 14:21

Comment submitted by Chris Puttick

While it's good new that the data is being released witout restrictions on commercial use, it is very poor quality data. Take the station locations feed for instance - it is incomplete (as acknowledged in the FAQ), and the address of each station is a single field witout any consistency in the formatting. The pier locations feed lacks even address information.

As it stands, the information on Wikipedia is more useful.

Tue, 06/15/2010 15:15

Comment submitted by Chris

But Chris, even if the data is a bit lacking at the moment, the point is that it's free (as in speech as well as beer). So imagine the databases & APIs the community can build by mashing up the data from TfL, Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap, for example.

Tue, 06/15/2010 17:34

Comment submitted by Andy Brice

Thanks for the feedback! We're really pleased we've now got this data available on the site, and we'll be feeding back your views to our data suppliers at TfL directly.

We'll be working with TfL on an ongoing basis to improve the quality of the data we share as we go forward, so please let us know exactly how the data can be improved either by commenting here, or using the datastore@london.gov.uk email address.

Wed, 06/16/2010 11:06

Comment submitted by ony Stewart (GLA) (not verified

I went for the easiest one.

http://scraperwiki.com/scrapers/show/london-cycle-hire-locations/map/

Doesn't it need opening times and prices?

Now back to work.

Wed, 06/16/2010 11:11

Comment submitted by Julian Todd

Mark - Erm, maybe they corrected the typos after your post, but apart from possible misuse of apostrophe ("SME's") I can't find too much wrong here.

Wed, 06/16/2010 17:00

Comment submitted by ob (not verified

I belong to the software developing community of London and I am also a blogger. I liked your post about us software engineers.

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Sun, 06/27/2010 12:01

Comment submitted by avid Shane (not verified

Where are the bus data sets that were promised to be released by 30th of June?

---------------------

"We are currently working on further data sets to be released by 30th June. These include:

Bus Stops

Bus Routes"

---------------------

Fri, 07/02/2010 01:28

Comment submitted by nonymous (not verified

As exclusively revealed by the Guardian two weeks ago, Transport for London has opened up huge swathes of its data for free re-use by developers keen to see what they can do - and build - with it.

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Tue, 07/20/2010 07:52

Comment submitted by Toronto House Renovations

When we asked for route traffic data under the Freedom of Information Act a year ago to add value to our Aaron's Time Machine: London iPhone app we were loftliy dismissed. We were told there was no point pursuing this because we were not goping to get the data. "You know what? We ain't going to help ya."

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Wed, 07/21/2010 13:52

Comment submitted by aviation tools supply

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Fri, 07/23/2010 22:39

Comment submitted by nonymous (not verified

I think the Boost for it's moves like this on behalf of the Mayor's office that are helping to make London a showcase for how private sector technology startups and developers can start to leverage data to create products which benefit both the wider community and create jobs...

thanks.

Thu, 08/12/2010 09:40

Comment submitted by SEO Hampshire

Good news about time they release some data. Why are people moaning about spelling mistakes in the blog who are the spell police. thank anthony nice announcement. work advice

Fri, 09/24/2010 22:26

Comment submitted by lee work

Hello i am shawnlee.Thanks for sharing this post.This site is very helpful for me and others.such a great site in the world.I really enjoy this site.While it's good new that the data is being released witout restrictions on commercial use, it is very poor quality data. Take the station locations feed for instance - it is incomplete (as acknowledged in the FAQ), and the address of each station is a single field witout any consistency in the formatting. The pier locations feed lacks even address information.i hope you are satisfied my comment

Take care.

Thanks

Tue, 12/07/2010 08:48

Comment submitted by amesunderson40 (not verified

Good news about time they release some data. Why are people moaning about spelling mistakes in the blog who are the spell police. thank anthony nice announcement

Tue, 12/07/2010 08:49

Comment submitted by amesunderson40 (not verified

Big boost for software developers! Fantastic

Mon, 02/14/2011 17:46

Comment submitted by Anonymous

There is no doubt that this will provide a welcome economic boost to London’s SMEs and individual developers. nice posting for Boost for London's Software Developer Community and SMEs as TfL lifts all restrictions on commercial reuse of its data. I like it.

Fri, 04/01/2011 10:51

Comment submitted by Seo Sydney

I feel after see this blog that it is really a Yummy blog! Thanks for giving out your creative mind’s eye. We're really pleased we've now got this data available on the site, and we'll be feeding back your views to our data suppliers at TfL directly. Thanks for sharing this post so much.

Fri, 08/12/2011 10:24

Comment submitted by seo melbourne

Helpful data or info for the public are always welcome.

http://www.pivotdigital.com.au/

Sun, 10/16/2011 06:20

Comment submitted by Andrew