SEPTA to cosponsor hackathon

Hoping to join the list of public agencies that have benefited from the open data movement, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is cosponsoring a hackathon on October 8-9. The idea is to spur the creation of new applications that use SEPTA’s real-time data to benefit the riding public. As a recent hackathon in San Francisco demonstrated, developers can create viable apps in far less time — and for far less money — than an agency would require to develop a comparable product in-house. “They can be a little more agile in consuming [data] and putting these products out to the public,” said SEPTA’s director of emerging and specialty technology Mike Zaleski about hackathon participants. “In the end it benefits our riders.” Link to full story in The Inquirer.

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