The entire Metro-Google controversy of a week ago has sparked some great conversation about the future of WMATA's mass transit information.
Recently Metro said it wouldn't partner with Google Transit, causing some to revolt and demand greater access to information in ways people can actually use it, not just on WMATA's Web site.
Blog Greater Greater Washington recently went to a Metro board meeting to get some answers. The result: Metro agreed ... sort of.
"Metro has agreed in principle that making this information available to all is a goal," David Alpert stated on the blog.
A good start, no doubt. Chief Administrative Officer Emeka Moneme said the following during the meeting:
"... It's not necessarily about working with Google, that's one of the many partners that we think we could work with. ... Making our information available for whomever out there that does manipulation of information to make or create applications, for example, for people's PDAs, having a relationship with them would be good not just for us, but for our ridership and for the region. So it's a direction we want to move in."
Kudos to GGW, who got close to 800 people to sign a petition to open up WMATA's data to outside partners. The future still isn't clear on how WMATA's Metro information can be used, but it's a step in the right direction.
