SAVE THE DATE: WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 16th 2011, 10:00-11:00AM EST A Webinar from the National Center for Transit Research's Transit GIS Clearinghouse: Real-Time Bus Tracking and Customer Information in New York City: MTA's Open Approach to Doing it Faster and Cheaper Webinar Objectives: The objectives of this webinar are to: * Inform other members of the transit and agency community regarding MTA's approach to developing and implementing a real-time bus tracking and customer information system at reduced costs and schedules * Offer lessons learned to peers considering a similar approach * Elicit interest among other agencies for co-investment in the open source, software package powering the back end of MTA's system Webinar Description: This Webinar will explain Metropolitan Transit Authority's (MTA) approach to developing its real-time bus tracking and customer information system (branded "MTA Bus Time") for its fleet of 6,000 buses and 2.5 million daily, bus riders in New York City. Mr. Michael Frumin will discuss the technical and procurement/contracting strategies that are allowing MTA to achieve its customer-facing and internal objectives for the project. These customer-facing objectives include minimizing the time to deliver the MTA Bus Time service to customers, and making the information widely available to all customers wherever, whenever, and however they may want it. The internal objectives are primarily to minimize both the capital and whole-life cost of the project, as well as to maintain the flexibility to change the system over time as technologies and needs evolve. The strategies to achieve these objectives are many. Among the most critical are the adoption of mobile and internet-based delivery of customer information; provisioning of free, publically available developer API's; use of open standard interfaces and commercially available technology components; sharing of on-bus infrastructure between projects and systems; open source software licensing; and MTA adopting the role of the overall systems integrator willing to contract with multiple vendors. Webinar Presenter: Michael Frumin is the Systems Engineering Manager for MTA's Bus Customer Information Systems (Bus CIS, aka "MTA Bus Time") project.In this capacity, he leads the technical portion of MTA's effort to develop a real-time bus tracking and customer information system which, when complete, will track a fleet of nearly 6,000 buses and serve over 2.5 million daily riders via a variety of web and mobile interfaces.Michael joined the MTA Bus Time team while finishing a graduate program at MIT in Transportation and Operations Research. Prior to MIT, he worked as a software developer and researcher at an open source R&D lab, a $4 billion hedge fund, and a number of internet startups. A consistent thread throughout his work has been open-licensed or otherwise online, publically accessible data streams, and the use and development of open source software. Michael lives in Brooklyn, NY, very close to where he grew up.He attended public schools in New York City and studied Computer Science at Stanford University.Michael has commuted and traveled via public transportation his entire life, including once traveling half way around the world (a good portion on the Trans-Siberian Railway), only to have to turn around and fly home the way he came. Connection Information https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/cutr/join?id=BusTracking&role=attend&… or Join the meeting. Audio Information Computer Audio To use computer audio, you need speakers and microphone, or a headset. Telephone conferencing Choose one of the following: Start Live Meeting client, and then in Voice & Video pane under Join Audio options, click Call Me. The conferencing service will call you at the number you specify. (Recommended) Use the information below to connect: Toll-free: +1 (866) 347-0397 Participant code: 3117 First Time Users: To save time before the meeting, check your system to make sure it is ready to use Microsoft Office Live Meeting. Notes Troubleshooting Unable to join the meeting? Follow these steps: Copy this address and paste it into your web browser: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/cutr/join Copy and paste the required information: Meeting ID: BusTracking Entry Code: information Location: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/cutr If you still cannot enter the meeting, contact Stephanie Zavacki: Email: zavacki(a)cutr.usf.edu Notice Microsoft Office Live Meeting can be used to record meetings. By participating in this meeting, you agree that your communications may be monitored or recorded at any time during the meeting. Martin Catala Manager GIS and Informatics Group Center for Urban Transportation Research 4202 East Fowler Ave (CUT100) Tampa, FL 33620 813-974-9791 catala(a)cutr.usf.edu http://www.transitgis.org Join the Transit GIS Listserv<http://lists.cutr.usf.edu/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=transi…