Hi Navaneethan,

Thanks!

Ways to contribute..

1. If you have contacts with people in transit agencies (or CM Fellows or
something), please connect and let's see if the agency would like to start
work on digitising or updating their schedules in this global standard
format. Can share the TRAVIC map <http://tracker.geops.ch> with them to
convey the potential.

2. Same if its a network of citizens who want to digitize a transport
system irrespective of official agency's buy-in. We can get them set up
with their own instance.

3. Beta testing the tool, submitting feedback and suggestions on the github
repo.

4. Documentation help : There's a lot to do. From user side as well as for
explaining to collaborating coders.

5. If you'd like to collaborate on programming front, most welcome! Pick
one issue / enhancement
<https://github.com/WRI-Cities/static-GTFS-manager/issues/> to take up.
Since the documentation part is lacking right now, I'll need to walk you
through some things (which might help in documentation)

6. Help in making a standalone windows executable version of the program.

I still have to send the outreach to send to the international GTFS
community (wanted to fix a bunch of things that came up); once that is
done, more activities may happen.


--
Cheers,
Nikhil VJ
+91-966-583-1250
Pune, India
Website <http://nikhilvj.co.in>
DataMeet Pune chapter <https://datameet-pune.github.io/>
Self-designed learner at Swaraj University <http://www.swarajuniversity.org>
Contribute <https://www.instamojo.com/@nikhilvj/>

On Sat, Apr 21, 2018 at 11:24 AM, Navaneethan Santhanam <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi Nikhil,
>
> Great job - how can I contribute to this? I'll have a look at the Github
> repo!
>
>
> On Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 10:58:56 PM UTC+5:30, Nikhil VJ wrote:
>>
>> Hi Friends,
>>
>> Over the last few months I went deep-dive into a project with WRI (World
>> Resources Institute) and Kochi Metro in Kerala (KMRL) to convert their
>> scheduling data to the global standard static GTFS
>> <https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/reference/> format.
>>
>> The first phase of the project was about just the data conversion. I
>> wrote a python program that took in KMRL's data files and some
>> configuration files, and created a static GTFS feed as output. There were
>> many more complexities than I can share here, and Shine David from KMRL was
>> a crucial enabler by being the inside man sharing all necessary info and
>> clarifications.
>>
>> On 17 March this year, Kochi Metro Rail Ltd became India's first transit
>> agency to publish static GTFS feed of their system as open data.
>>
>> See the *KMRL open data portal* <https://kochimetro.org/open-data/> and
>> some news coverage: 1
>> <http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2018/mar/17/kochi-metro-adopts-open-data-system-to-improve-access-to-its-services-1788342.html>
>> , 2
>> <http://indianexpress.com/article/india/kochi-metro-throws-open-transit-data-to-public-on-the-lines-of-london-new-york-5100381/>
>> , 3
>> <http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/open-data-to-improve-commuter-experience/article23275844.ece>
>> , 4
>> <http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/kmrl-moves-a-step-ahead-to-open-up-transit-data/article23247617.ece>
>> .
>>
>> See it visualized on a global GTFS feeds map called TRAVIC
>> <http://tracker.geops.ch/?z=2&s=1&x=1796473.6262&y=2340903.0780&l=transport>
>> .
>> (zoom in to kochi and press fast forward. Can adjust time of day.)
>>
>> Phase 2 of the project aimed higher : we started work on a program with a
>> graphical user interface that would automate several manual processes and
>> help KMRL update their data as the network grows, publish updated feeds on
>> their own without having to rely on any external entity, and very
>> importantly for their case, integrate bus and ferry routes of Kochi in the
>> near future to build towards a unified public transport dataset and
>> facilitate integrated ticketing. As we progressed into this we realised the
>> potential this can have if we generalise it so that any transit agency can
>> use it.
>>
>> So, here's launching..
>>
>> https://github.com/WRI-Cities/static-GTFS-manager
>>
>>
>>
>> Did I mention we have open sourced the whole thing? Big Kudos to WRI and
>> especially Vishal who co-ordinated the whole project, for being proactive
>> and pro-open-source with this.
>>
>> The program runs in the browser (actually, please use Chrome or Chromium
>> and no mobile!) as a website with a server backend created by a Python 3
>> program. It manages the data in a portable internal database and publishes
>> fresh GTFS feeds whenever wanted.
>>
>> To play around with a live demo version of the program, see: 
>> *https://thawing-mountain-46422.herokuapp.com/
>> <https://thawing-mountain-46422.herokuapp.com/>*
>>
>> Note: If you want to make edits, imports or exports, the password is
>> second paragraph > second line > fifth word of this email. And I won't
>> maintain this instance (made a throwaway one to share with big mailing
>> lists) so go ahead and mess with it at own expense.
>>
>> Note: while it's compatible to publish this program on a free heroku
>> account, it is currently not designed for multi-user use. That's kind of
>> not in the basic requirements, as end user is just a transport agency's
>> internal team. (With your participation we can change that.)
>>
>>
>> So, why I am sharing about this here: Apart from obviously sharing cool
>> stuff,
>>
>> With this it's possible to design any transport system's static GTFS feed 
>> *from
>> scratch*, or edit an older feed you have lying around and bring it up to
>> date.
>>
>> ---------------------
>>
>> Invitation for Collaboration
>>
>> There is more that can be done with enhancements and integrations, and
>> there are still some limitations
>> <https://github.com/WRI-Cities/static-GTFS-manager/issues> that need to
>> be resolved. I'm documenting all I know in the issues section. So I'm
>> reaching out for inviting collaborations on the coding and beta testing
>> front. One motive behind open sourcing is that the community can achieve
>> far more with this project than what any private individual or group can.
>> There's also scope to integrate many other GTFS innovations
>> <https://github.com/CUTR-at-USF/awesome-transit> happening. Please visit
>> the github repo and engage!
>>
>> One immediate request from my end: I need help with making a windows
>> binary from this program. I found the guides to do it, but my laptop's
>> windows OS is  gone wonky, for some reason I'm not able to get some things
>> to work out. I'm looking for someone who can do python 3 on a windows
>> machine.
>>
>> Lastly, big shout-out to DMers Srinivas Kodali from Hyderabad chapter for
>> connecting and lots of guiding, and to Devdatta Tengshe from Pune chapter
>> for helping me learn asynchronous server setup in Python in a lightning
>> fast way (with a working example
>> <https://github.com/devdattaT/sampleTornadoApp> for dummies!)
>>
>>
>> Quick links:
>> https://github.com/WRI-Cities/static-GTFS-manager
>> https://thawing-mountain-46422.herokuapp.com/
>>
>> --
>> Cheers,
>> Nikhil VJ
>> +91-966-583-1250
>> Pune, India
>> Website <http://nikhilvj.co.in>
>> DataMeet Pune chapter <https://datameet-pune.github.io/>
>> Self-designed learner at Swaraj University <http://www.swarajuniversity.o
>> rg>
>> Contribute <https://www.instamojo.com/@nikhilvj/>
>>
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