It’s utterly embarrassing that the city would enter into an agreement with a vendor only to see the vendor turn around and turn a buck trying to sell this public data back to its citizens. This data is already PAID for, by us! Muni data, like other public data, should be publicly available and *machine readable*.

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My friend Jeffrey McManus on Routsey, an iPhone App created by my friend Steven Peterson which has been pulled from the Apple store because a private company has stated that they own MUNI’s timetable data, even though a spokesman from MUNI themselves says that the data is open and accessible.

Ernie says: Good for Steven for fighting this good fight (disclaimer: Steven is a friend a former co-worker of mine from the Yahoo! days.) I probably wouldn’t have the energy to fight the legal portions of it; corporate life has made me a little too battle-worn for those things anymore. And think of it this way, Steven: free publicity.