dartmaps redux

Posted: June 8th, 2006 | Tags: | 14 Comments »

Dartmaps has returned after a brief intermission, albeit in a slightly more crippled form: the train times are now compiled from timetables rather than scraped from the real-time data.

This is thanks to the IT & Telecommunications department of CIE (who run the DART service) systematically blocking access from my servers to the real-time data.

Quite why they would do this, I do not know. From a technical point-of-view, they can not have had an issue with the volume or frequency of data transfer. 16Kb 4 times an hour is a drop in the ocean compared to their daily traffic. Nor should they have a problem with the extra publicity that it has attracted for Irish Rail, who, just by association, are now considered to be an innovative, forward-thinking company by mapping and transport geeks around the world.

They may just be miffed that a third party has created a cool new use of their own data, while their own web development team can’t even sort out their own mess of sites. As they never actually contacted me, I guess we’ll never know for sure.

Previously, Dartmaps could show actually useful real-time information such as the usual breakdowns, cancellations and delays (reminding me of the hilarious announcement familiar to all dart users that goes something along the lines of “the x train is running late due to the late arrival of an incoming train”). Now, however, you can only see the timetabled scheduled of trains, which, let’s face is, is rarely “real-time”.

Update 8/6/06: I have restored access to the real-time data. Dartmaps is back in business!

14 Comments on “dartmaps redux”

  1. 1 Seb Guest said at 18:54 on June 6th, 2006:

    Man that REALLY sucks; I’d love to know what the official comment is from the Irish Rail tech dept… Have you tried contacting them at all?

  2. 2 Justin said at 21:39 on June 6th, 2006:

    Sounds like http://tor.eff.org/ might help…

  3. 3 Fr Ted said at 23:28 on June 6th, 2006:

    Down with that sort of thing.

  4. 4 Dougal said at 23:28 on June 6th, 2006:

    Careful now.

  5. 5 John said at 00:38 on June 7th, 2006:

    I second tor. Or you could make the user pick a station and then have their browser do the “data load” from cie

  6. 6 Matthew said at 01:53 on June 7th, 2006:

    What a pity. Your live mashup was a great way to introduce people to Google Maps. The fact that you’ve been denied access to what is supposed to be publicly-accessible data on a state company’s website is a perfect example of the situation with spatial data access in this country. Data collected by taxpayer-funded state agencies and companies is usually under the copyright of the Government or company and available only at a price: a price that only large companies can normally afford. Contrast this situation with that in the US, where works of the government are in the public domain. No wonder there’s been a deluge of independent geospatial applications in the US, while here in Ireland there’s barely a trickle – a trickle that it seems some people want to end.

  7. 7 Cameron Adams said at 17:56 on June 7th, 2006:

    That’s a real shame Mackers. I used to use your mashup in my presentations about JavaScript and the innovation capable by allowing open data. Oh well, I’ll still use it, just with the caveat: “Don’t let your data be imprisoned!”

  8. 8 Dave said at 00:02 on June 8th, 2006:

    You should have a look at this. Magill Magazine wanted to put TV listings into their publication. RTE claimed to own the copyright to this data and filed court injunctions preventing Magill from printing this. Magill took it to the European Court of Justice and won, because RTE were abusing their dominant role and obstructing competition. If CIE claim that you cannot reproduce their timetables they would very much be in the wrong. Now I’m not saying you should take them to the ECJ, but a nicely worded email (with this info) to someone important should remedy this situation!

  9. 9 mackers said at 14:19 on June 8th, 2006:

    Thanks for all the technical and legal advice.

    I have managed to restore access to the real-time data, so dartmaps is in its full splendor again. For how long is anyone’s guess, but the ball is their court for now (rather that court than the European Court of Justice!).

  10. 10 twistedkitty said at 19:43 on June 8th, 2006:

    yeay, im glad!

  11. 11 spacetweek said at 17:29 on June 9th, 2006:

    Nice one! Way to rock the system mackers.

  12. 12 Rob said at 15:17 on June 10th, 2006:

    You mean they actually HAVE real-time data? I always assumed it was just taken from the timetable…

  13. 13 Paranoid guy who won't reveal his name. said at 18:47 on June 11th, 2006:

    look at this webcam: http://www.opentopia.com/showcam.php?camid=3307
    it points at the tracks right beside pearse station, you could use this to check how accurate dartmaps really is. Oh, and let’s hope live data keeps working!

  14. 14 john Allsopp said at 07:34 on June 16th, 2006:

    this is a vision of the future right here. Amazing stuff!

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