As promised, today’s announcement:

If you want the summary, scroll down to “What it all means”

If you want the medium-sized recap, read this blog post.

If you want the full-length announcement, see this PDF.

The problem

As of this May, two of the three developers of the VT Bus Tracker will have graduated. So that begs the question we’ve been asking ourselves for some time, “Where to from here?”.

The first idea we had was to create a student group. Many concerns with this idea came up. Student groups fluctuate a lot from year to year, including the leadership. Every four years, no single face is the same. There is no consistency. Too little involvement one year would mean the minimum amount of maintenance and development required to keep the system running would not be met. Since students have so many other things to do, including class, jobs and other organizations, it would require a lot of students to pledge their time during the school year.

The solution

As we were trying to figure out how to sustain the project, all three of us were realizing just how much we enjoyed developing the system. The intricacies of solving unsolved problems, figuring out how to make live bus data useful to riders, and making our tools and interfaces the best that were out there all excited us. The only limitation of the fun was time and resources.

The solution that we came up with is to start a mobile software development company. Here’s our plan. The project that we had been working on was open source, which basically means that anyone can download the code and build more on to it. We’re going to be one of those anybody’s. We will take the open source code, spend the time and work that it would require to allow it to run at other universities and cities, then sell it. If we can sell it, then the project is funded, and we would have jobs, therefore we would be able to develop on it for the lifetime of the project, which hopefully, outlives us.

What it all means

So what does this mean for me? A solution to all of our problems:

• The BT does not have to worry anymore about if the project will continue, or who is the main contact (they are already on board with this new project).
• Lifetime of bug fixes, maintenance, support from a funded entity, with points of contact for you.

But even better, this solution means that we can continue to flesh out this system with the following:

• Native app for Windows Phone
  
• Desktop client for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and even Internet Explorer 7, 8, and 9!
  
• There will be a new version of all of our native apps which will be even better than what you had last August.
• The new mobile web app works on more than just iPhones and Androids – in fact, it works on every mobile device with a browser that can run Google Maps.
• ETA calculations will be run by machine-learning algorithms, which basically means that ETA’s will be spot on.
• Push. Currently, the clients check for updates every 10 seconds. With Push, they will receive bus updates the second they come in.
• You will be able to download and install the application from its respective store: App Store, App World, Android Marketplace, etc., for easier installation. (Plus: It will always remain free!)
• Support for new devices as they come out (for example, we’re already working on a version for the Blackberry Playbook)
• And finally, new features as fast as we can dream them up (for example, push notifications: “Notify me when the bus is 2 minutes away every M,W,F”, or “Notify me when the bus is 1 minute away from the empo”)

We’re excited to get this process rolling so we can show you what we’ve been working on.

Since the beginning of this year, we have been working with a marketing firm known as Snow. We’ve been trying to find out if this idea is possible; if it is feasible. The great people at Snow have helped us to begin this business and are helping us to market and sell the product that we are still working on. Getting the open source code from the VT Bus Tracker project to be able to work with multiple transit agency’s is no small task, and a lot of time also has to be spent on making all of our applications better (which everyone in Blacksburg will benefit from in a huge way, very soon). So right now we’re in the process of getting our first few transit agencies on board, after the Blacksburg Transit, and developing our new product. Once this phase is over, you will be able to download our project’s applications which will, besides being much smoother, faster, and more feature-filled, allow you to not only track Blacksburg Transit buses, but will also allow you to track those of the agencies we sign on. So if you open this app in another town or city, it will automatically start showing you those routes and buses instead!

We are extremely excited for you to get your hands on what we’ve been working on. This level of quality and advanced features just isn’t feasible from students volunteering part- time, but we’ve found the ideal solution to allow us to work full time on a project that provides you with the applications that you want.

If you want the full-length announcement, see this PDF.

What they offer is entirely different from what we offer. Okay, maybe not entirely, but it is definitely different, and those differences mean that how they will be used, and who uses them, will likely be different.

The BT has these signs on the Hethwood and CRC routes (as far as I know) with a number to text, and they give you a 4-digit stop code. This isn’t a use it in the empo or in your home kind of system, it’s a text it once you’re already at the stop system. That’s what they offer; ease of mind at the bus stop, and guidance for a new rider.

Our system, as the goal was defined since the beginning, is designed for the student in the empo or in their apartment. There’s no need for stop codes, and therefore there’s no need to already be at the stop. There’s a bunch of different visual apps that let you figure out where the buses are (as well as how many people are on them!) without going to the bus stop yet. You don’t even need to know the best stop to use, it’ll GPS it for you. That’s what we offer; 10 more minutes in the empo instead of waiting at a bus stop, or five more minutes not spent in the rain.

As I see it, the goals of the projects are different, and therefore cater to different needs.

Next Wednesday, we will have a big announcement concerning the future of the VT Bus Tracker. We’re really excited for it, and we’re really excited to show you what that means for the apps on your phones. Be sure to check back then!

Sincerely,
The VT Bus Tracker Team

The Collegiate Times ran a great article today that really sums up how launch went, and what our future plans are. It is reprinted below, because wrote it much better than we could!

From: http://collegiatetimes.com/stories/15911/vt-bus-tracker-looking-to-expand-capabilities

VT Bus Tracker looking to expand capabilities

Tuesday, September 28, 2010; 11:26 PM

by Claire Sanderson, news reporter

After a successful launch in August, developers of the VT Bus Tracker are looking to make improvements to the application.

“Our first week was phenomenal. The first day of classes we got about 8,000 hits to the feed, the next day about 21,000,” said developer and computer science major Alex Obenauer. “Now we average about 40,000 hits every day.”

Obenauer and the rest of the development team — computer science major Michael Dillon, alumnus Travis Webb and computer science professor Eli Tilevich —  are attempting to implement ideas submitted through the application’s website.

One improvement the team is working on is adding a notification feature.

Developers plan for riders to receive notifications to their phones when certain buses are coming to certain stops.

“For example, you can tell the app, ‘Alert me two minutes before the last Hethwood bus comes that will arrive at Burruss by 8 a.m.,’” Obenauer said. “It would tell you two minutes before that bus gets to your stop.”

Obenauer said students could also set up this feature to run on certain days for their classes.

“That way you can go out there right before the bus arrives and you don’t have to wait 15 or 30 minutes at the stop,” Obenauer said. “I think it will definitely change the way people use the application.”

Sophomore business major Patrick Finger said he liked using the application.

“I think it’s a great way for students to catch the bus on time more easily,” Finger said.

Finger added that the app could also benefit from more marketing.

“I don’t think many students use it or know what it is,” Finger said.

The team is also looking to fix its program to have more information on tripper buses. The buses are scheduled when normally-scheduled buses on a route become too full, and are common during heavily traveled times such as weekday mornings.

“The problem was that the tripper buses were hybrid buses and they didn’t gave GPS sytems on them, but we’re working on getting that as soon as we can,” Obenauer said.

The team is also rethinking the back end system of the application to make it run more quickly and cleanly. One of the intended uses for the back end system is to let younger computer science students access the data and use the program in their classes.

According to Obenauer, the team is currently rewriting the curriculum for computer science students to incorporate the bus tracker system. The class, beginning next spring, will see students incorporating data from the tracker to learn computer science concepts.

“It allows CS students to build projects that are helpful to them and to their fellow students,” Obenauer said.

The final project for these students will be an open-ended challenge to design any application for the VT Bus Tracker. Select applications would be posted on the group’s website.

One idea for an app that Obenauer hinted at was a heat map of where parties were located on a Friday or Saturday night, using information about how many people get off a bus a certain stops.

We are very excited to get this in to your hands, but we want you to know that it is not perfect. We are continuing to work on it for the weeks and months to come, so please bear with us if you find any lagging or inaccurate data! The more you use it, the better we can make it, so keep on at it.

Speaking of helping us make it better, we set up a site for you to give us your feedback at http://ideas.bustracker.org/. We are very excited to hear from you.

Finally, on to the good stuff. We are proud to announce that we are releasing all of our planned clients today! Click the links below for more information on the client you want to use.

Universal Apps
Text Messaging (For All Phones)	Mobile Web App (For iPhone & Android)	Desktop (For Safari & Chrome)
Native Apps
iPhone App	Android App	Blackberry App

 
Thanks for hanging in there with us all summer, and we hope the VT Bus Tracker makes the beginning of your school year much easier!

Sincerely,
The VT Bus Tracker Team
Dr. Tilevich, Travis, Mike, and Alex

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/VT-Bus-Tracker/140512365988880