Hi All,
Just a thought...
How many times have we've seen someone board a bus, swipe their
metrocard, and hear that annoying 'buzzer' sound-off when a card has
'Insufficient Fare'. (lol) Then everyone behind them has to back off
the bus to let them off. Or they try to solicit exact change from
someone on the bus - to no avail. I'm sure everyone has left their
house in the morning wondering: How did so many metrocards get in my
wallet? or which one of these metrocards has any money on it?
Wouldn't it be nice to have a smartphone application that would allow
you to check your metrocard balance? A simple GUI with a textbox to
enter your serial number and press 'Submit'.
On Aug 12, 4:53 pm, "Kaufman, Sarah" <
Sarah.Kauf...@nyct.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> Thanks for all your enthusiasm on this topic.
> When we considered how best to release MetroCard data, we decided not to release any potentially personally identifying information, which most of the categories in the original post would involve, and as discussed colorfully by Ed. There's great potential for stalking, credit card theft, and other forms of privacy invasion if serial numbers were released with usage or purchase data. That's why we went with what are now the turnstile data sets, which actually reflect turnstile rotations and not MetroCard swipes.
>
> And to address Jehiah's earlier email, I'm looking into the issue with turnstile data updates. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
>
> To address Jehiah's point about looking up data for specific serial numbers, that's available on newer Easy Pay Xpress MetroCards:
http://www.mta.info/metrocard/EasyPayXpress.htm- I believe you can monitor your own activity, if that's of interest.
>
> As for the request of MetroCard data in real-time, that's not possible, since we calculate usage on a daily or weekly basis, and not in real-time.
>
> Finally, as I mentioned in an earlier email, we're pretty short-staffed at the moment, so it'll take longer than usual for updates, fixes, etc, not to mention the generation of new data sets. However, we will put out necessary GTFS updates as soon as possible.
>
> Hope that helps to clear up some questions.
>
> Sarah
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
mtadevelop...@googlegroups.com [mailto:
mtadevelop...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jehiah Czebotar
> Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 3:37 PM
> To:
mtadevelop...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [MTAdev] Metrocard Data
>
> I agree that the issues with releasing this data on a granular data
> are privacy related, but the MTA would probably also run into issues
> with manpower to provide access to the data as it is such a large
> dataset.
>
> That said, this sort of dataset would be awesome. I could see a
> potential way to limit the privacy issues if you could only get
> metrocard data for a serial number you already knew about, but the MTA
> would probably still run into issues with manpower to provide access
> to the data in that format.
>
> They should however be able to aggregate the metrocard data from buses
> and release daily counts for each bus trip/line similar to the
> turnstile data without any privacy implications.
>
> --
> Jehiah
>
> On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 2:59 PM, Edward Potter <
edwardpot...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Great ideas, however I expect some people may think this is too much
> > data being released.
>
> > Us App guys: what do mean, it's all anonymous!
>
> > Yes, and that's what Netflix and AOL said when they released simlar
> > "anonymous data". And they were able to trace "anonymous data" right
> > back to individuals.
>
> > No dear, I was for sure not visiting my old flame! Are you crazy?
> > Well I took your metrocard to a card reader (my brother the hacker),
> > grabbed the id, and I was able to trace everywhere you went for the
> > last week.
> > hmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . .
> > Hey, my one and only, how about we pickup those $1200 Prada shoes
> > you've had your eyes on forever!
> > We'll talk about it. :-)
>
> > And so it goes!
>
> > But hey, I'm on your side.
>
> > On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 1:03 PM, C Caldwell <
chiu...@msn.com> wrote:
> >> Upon the originally requesting turnstile data, myself and other
> >> developers were hoping for more usable information. Is it possible to
> >> have metrocard data that will show real-time data such as:
>
> >> 1. Type of card (unlimited, regular, student, reduced-fare, employee)
> >> 2. Time and location of card usage (should indicate train or bus)
> >> 3. Date, time and vending machine (or merchant id) from which the card
> >> was purchase
> >> 4. Card id number or serial number
> >> 5. Remaining balance or expiration-of-usage date
> >> 6. Type of swipe (i.e. entry or transfer)
>
> >> Please let us know if this is possible as the developer community
> >> would create some really cool apps from this information.
>
> > --
> > IM/iChat: ejpusa
> > Links:
http://del.icio.us/ejpusa
> > Follow me:
http://www.twitter.com/ejpusa
> > Karma:
http://www.coderswithconscience.com- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -