-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 15
Mobiles4Good
This is our application to the Vodafone Mobiles for Good 2012 http://mobilesforgood.mbillionth.in competition for which we were nominated by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) http://iihs.ac.in and were short-listed but did not make the finalist list.
5. Short description of the application/service/innovation (LESS THAN 200 WORDS)
ChaloBEST aims to provide innovative solutions to questions faced every day by millions of urban commuters – how can I reach my destination? Today most Indians with smart phones or basic handsets are able to receive information in an instant.
Despite this revolution in mobile connectivity, essential data about urban mobility remains difficult to find – bus frequencies, train schedules, street maps and point-to-point routing. For the past year, ChaloBEST has been developing mobile applications and media for public transportation in Mumbai:
-
Software: SMS, web and smartphone applications and web API for real-time scheduling and routing by bus, train and multiple modes of public transit;
-
Data: Web and location-based services “crowd-sourced” from the commuting public, powered by databases sourced and updated regularly from official transit agencies;
-
Media: Public campaign with creatively designed, multi-lingual posters, stickers, and maps at stops and stations, and through word-of-mouth and “viral” marketing.
We see mobiles as tools to re-imagine transportation systems as social networks, empower commuters as citizens, and make public transit agencies more user-friendly, transparent and efficient. Since November 2011, ChaloBEST has been supported by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, as first prize winners in the “Sankranti” Transform Urban India student competition.
6. Select the core technology categories/providers
- Mobile content aggregators
- Mobile/mobility application developers
- Mobile content and information developers
7. Technical description of the project (product/services/platform) (LESS THAN 200 WORDS)
Hardware:
- PC AMD64 QuadCore Server
- USB GSM Modem
- All Basic Handsets and/or Android/J2ME Smartphones
Software:
- GNU/Linux Server OS (Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora)
- PostgreSQL/PostGIS Database Server
- Django Web Framework and API
- RapidSMS Mobile Application Framework
- OpenLayers Web Mapping API
- OpenStreetMap (OSM) Community Map Server
- OpenTripPlanner (OTP) Multi-Modal Routing API
- GTFS (General Transit Feed Spec) Data Standard
Platform:
- WWW/HTML/CSS
- SMS
- Android
- J2ME/Java
- Print Media
- Word-of-Mouth
Feature List
- Real-Time Bus and Train Routing and Scheduling
- Works on all Handsets via SMS or Data-Enabled Services/Apps
- Location-Aware and Location-Based Services
- Integration with OpenStreetMap (OSM), Google Transit and GTFS
- Published as Free and Open Source (FOSS) using Open Data Standards
Integration mechanism (with different mobile phones)
- SMS
- Mobile Web (HTML 4/5)
- Android (1.6-4.0)
- J2ME/Java
Edition & Pricing (editions tailored for the demanding needs of small to large size businesses from different industries)
Application and use is free of cost to all users.
Coverage Area
Initially covering Greater Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Mira-Bhayander. All tools, services and frameworks will be made generic and open-source for use in other cities.
Value Added Services, if any
- Multi-Modal Routing
- Location-Based Services
- Public Participation through Crowdsourcing
- Social Networking Integration
Service & Support (in terms of software, or hardware, if applicable)
N/A
8. Installation Procedure/Technical Requirements of the project (product/app) for testing by Jury (e.g. User Name & Password/steps/special browser/plug-in/Device/any other information required to access and test the product/project)
Please see links and instructions at our website http://chalobest.in
9. Timelines
- Date when Project Conceived: January 2011
- Launch Date of the Project: April 2011
- Project Completion Date: Ongoing
Important Timelines:
- November 2011: Sankranti Transform Urban India First Prize Award
- February 2012: Start of Sankranti Implementation Grant
- July 2012: Completion of Implementation (Expected)
- August 2012: Public Beta Launch (Expected)
10. What do you deliver (Content/Services) to the target group through this initiative with specified locations):
ChaloBEST is a citizen-centric information service which allows commuters to receive up-to-date and reliable public transportation information between any places or locations in the city via SMS, web, smartphone and print media.
We aim to deliver local travel routing based on individual queries, across all mobile handsets and platforms, to empower citizens to make informed choices about their local travel in Mumbai and other Indian cities.
Our project began one year ago in collaboration with BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking), with an initial focus on bus transportation, routing and scheduling and development of software applications and services for commuters in Greater Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, and Mira-Bhayander.
The ambition of ChaloBEST has grown to multi-modal routing via railways, metros, pedestrian and cycle paths. We also have established partnerships with programmers and groups in Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi who are collaborating with us in joint development, through BusRoutes.in http://busroutes.in
11. Describe the business model (LESS THAN 200 WORDS):
We in ChaloBEST believe that for our vision to become sustainable and profitable, our service must be vendor and network neutral, and work across handsets and mobile platforms. As a citizen-centric project based on public data, this vision can be sustained through data-sharing agreements with public transit agencies such as the BEST, and by providing value to the public, who may participate and share information on local travel conditions.
The core service of by the people, and for the people. For public users, basic services and essential information will be entirely free via SMS, web, smartphone and print media. These must be updated regularly with service changes and crowdsourced feedback, in official partnership with public agencies. To sustain this public-private partnership, ChaloBEST will be registered as a public cooperative society, with shares issued to current partners and invited members. As revenue sources for the society and to sustain the project, ChaloBEST may raise funding through activities such as database optimisation for public agencies; data visualisation, analytics, and planning assistance for public and private agencies; event routing; and advertisements.
12. Detailed Description of the project (describe in detail, mentioning all relevant information) (ABOUT 400 WORDS):
Today the majority of urban Indians – whether with data-enabled smart devices or the most basic handsets – can receive live information in an instant, whether via SMS, web, or smartphone apps. Despite this revolution in urban connectivity, essential data about urban mobility is scarce or unavailable in most Indian cities. Frequently changing bus and train schedules, alternative paths for pedestrians or cyclists, or location-based multi-modal routing are communicated offline by word-of-mouth, guesswork and improvisation. Rather than forcing urban commuters to adopt a rural mentality, we believe the solution already lies in our pockets – in our mobile devices.
In India, rapid development of communications technology has not kept pace with fast-paced urbanisation and changes in transportation. The public is literally “left to their own devices”. Travelling by rickshaws or taxis costs five to ten times more than an average bus or train fare. Those who can’t afford to pay this premium must simply wait and watch, in ignorance of when the next bus will arrive (if ever).
Impatience and lack of reliable information on split-second commuting decisions increases stress, and wastes time and money. This lack of information widens the digital divide and environmental crisis seen across urban India. As our cities expand, so has car ownership, congestion and pollution. The rich can bypass the system by congesting and polluting the roads with cars, and the poor pay the price of increased traffic.
The stress of road travel frequently erupts in widespread rage against the whole network, and aggression against imagined enemies of mobility. In Mumbai this crisis has recently inspired campaigns to boycott rickshaws and taxis which refuse to ply to the exact destinations demanded by impatient commuters. Positive efforts to democratise mobility are so far absent, and the use of “smart” technologies to improve commuting is in an early stage in urban India.
Our project proposes to radically “upgrade” the “software” for urban commuting in India. We provide solutions that work on existing devices and use open standards, rather than creating new or closed systems. We also want to bring back the “softer” dimensions of urban communication and mobility – the kindness of strangers, solidarity of commuters, and the pleasures of public spaces. Technology is only a means to empower the the collective intelligence of commuters and citizens to transform our cities for the better.
13. Quantitative and qualitative impact of the project in diverse locations and people (list Regional areas and number of users benefited) (LESS THAN 200 WORDS):
ChaloBEST aims for its applications and services to reach all potential users of public transportation in Mumbai and other Indian cities. We will support local groups and community organisations to collect and maintain the data and infrastructure to transfer our experience and project across the country.
For the past year we have worked with the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST), the oldest and largest bus company in the country, which serves around 46 lakh commuters. Our database also includes suburban and local railway schedules, with a potential impact on 64 lakh additional commuters. In total, just in Mumbai, our project aims to impact more than one crore citizen-commuters.
With similar official buy-ins in other Indian cities, and official databases provided in standard formats, we have already begun collaboration with like-minded groups in Pune, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi.
Indirect impacts of ChaloBEST include reduction of traffic and pollution by optimal and accurate route planning, improvement of public spaces and the urban environment, and savings of time, money and hassles in urban mobility.
14. What was the background and motivation behind developing the project (LESS THAN 200 WORDS): See other answers.
15. Best Impact case scenario of your project (LESS THAN 300 WORDS):
In five years, Mumbai will be covered by ChaloBEST and its network partners in other big Indian cities. New initiatives in smaller cities and towns will have grown out of these implementations. This will have been possible because of our strategy of using open source software, common standards and APIs, and public databases obtained in cooperation with transit agencies and policy makers.
Within this time, ChaloBEST and its partners will have become an important factor in making public transit the default commuting option in Indian cities. It wil become normal to quickly plan your trip via ChaloBEST. It will be easier and faster to commute, and the environment and public spaces will improve noticeably. People will be more relaxed than they used to be, because they are clear about how much time and money it takes to be sustainably mobile.
Reporting local travel information to ChaloBEST and the authorities will become a regular and casual activity. People’s effort will be rewarded with better scheduling and improved services, and public transit agencies will increase their profits and ridership. Bus, train, metro agencies, and citizens’ groups of cyclists and pedestrians will have begun cooperating and sharing their databases, maps, and plans using free web and mobile tools such as OpenStreetMap and OpenTripPlanner.
In this five year horizon for ChaloBEST and its networks, public transportation will become more truly “public”. Commuters and citizens will be directly involved in planning, coordinating and sharing their travel experiences through whatever device they have in their pockets.
16. How is your project unique? (Describe the uniqueness of your innovation in terms of the Originality of Idea / Method / Business Model / Technology / Application / Implementation that your product/project has which makes it different):
Our project aims to serve essential transit information across the entire spectrum of mobile handsets and platforms, from SMS and smartphones to the web, print and visual media.
We have based our entire development process on free and open source software such as Django, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, open data services and standards such as OpenStreetMap, GTFS and OpenTripPlanner, and official partnership and data-sharing with transit agencies.
17. Is your project sustainable on its own? How scalable is it? (LESS THAN 200 WORDS):
The long-term sustainability of ChaloBEST does not depend on large investments or donations. Our working prototype SMS, web and Android apps were built by students and volunteers using free software, locally-available, low-cost computer and mobile hardware, and public data provided by BEST.
Our open-source approach is driven by enthusiastic collaboration across disciplines to solve the challenges of sustainable mobility, and easily scales up to more users and to new cities wherever a local team shares our enthusiasm. Our applications and services can be used anywhere where sufficient data is collected and updated from official agencies, and free online services such as OpenStreetMap and OpenTripPlanner.
Our decentralised organisational structure of ChaloBEST, which emphasises voluntary effort, and local cooperatives working in semi-official partnership with public agencies, actively promotes scalability and sustainability of the project in any city or location.
Our current startup phase has been generously supported through our first prize award and implementation grant from Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), which we won for the Sankranti Transform Urban India competition in November 2011. We aim to continue fund-raising for our work from new investors, donors and partners as we develop a sustainable cooperative-based revenue stream and organisational model.
18. Would you like to share about other initiatives, products, projects and implementations that reflect your larger contribution toward using mobile innovation for empowering society?
We are a diverse group of activists, hardware and software developers and urban experts with a wide portfolio of interests in promoting science education, grassroots technology development, and civil society engagement. Members of our team are involved in non-profit initiatives for free software, open data, and public interest computing, such as the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, Mumbai, Wikimedia India Foundation, Free Software Foundation of India (FSF India), and OpenStreetMap.
19. Please mention 2-3 references with contacts:
SENT.
20. Limitations and challenges faced while implementation, running and sustainability, solutions worked out:
Our single biggest challenge in the past year has been to process the raw databases of routes and schedules, and stops, roads and areas from BEST into a standard database schema and web API that can be accessed across SMS, web, and smartphone interfaces. Incorporating changes and updates to offical databases every four months has also required our team to be in regular touch with BEST and public transit agencies, and we have begun providing them feedback on our database processing.
Official databases contain only official names of stops, roads, and areas, whereas Mumbai's cosmopolitan and multi-lingual culture refers to localities and landmarks frequently through multiple common names. Almost all places in Mumbai have two, three or more names – a colloquial name (“Dhobi Talao”), a nearby landmark (“Metro Cinema”), and an official name (“Basudev Balwant Phadke Chowk”). Our web API and database has been designed to incorporate alternative names and localised scripts/languages, beginning with Marathi.
Our final and most interesting challenge was to collect latitude-longitude coordinates for every one of the 3500 bus stops in Greater Mumbai, using hand-held GPS devices and a web interface designed around the public map service OpenStreetMap. This spatial data is used by our applications and services for determining a user’s location, displaying maps of nearby stops, routes, and lines, and point-to-point routing. The fully geo-referenced database will enable integration with mapping services such as Google Maps/Earth, OpenStreetMap and GIS software packages.
1. Do you consider your project a winning entry? If so, why? (LESS THAN 200 WORDS)
ChaloBEST won the first prize in the first annual Sankranti Transform Urban India student competition, held at the India Urban Conference in Mysore, November 2012, organised by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS). ChaloBEST has been nominated by IIHS to further our prize-winning collaboration by applying to Vodafone Mobiles4Good.
We hope to win because we believe that the revolution in urban connectivity must also lead to a transformation of urban mobility. Basic transit information is a public good in all citizens, rich or poor, have a collective stake.
Our model of free software, public data, and open standards is replicable and scalable in any city where public networks of mobile users, commuters and developers can come together and profit from our implementation in Mumbai. We have already signed an official partnership with BusRoutes.in http://busroutes.in to share our work and toolkit with enthusiastic developers in Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune.
2. If your project is chosen a winner, what would you do with the fund grant? In what sustainable and effective way the grant will be utilised for further implementation and scale up in the next 12 months? (LESS THAN 200 WORDS):
We aim to utilise the fund grant to complete development of our application toolkit and service framework for web, SMS, Android, J2ME and print media from its current alpha stage through public beta testing and final deployment in Mumbai, in official partnership with the BEST.
This will be followed by a public media campaign using word-of-mouth, viral and innovative social marketing strategies to build awareness around the services in Mumbai, in English and across multiple languages. Through this campaign, we will recruit users of ChaloBEST through open registration on our website, and leverage this social network to harvest more user contributions to and participation in our applications and services.
The campaign will employ creatively designed print media in English, Marathi, Gujarati and Hindi which contains links to our website and applications, as well as short and simple instructions on how to use the ChaloBEST SMS service.
We plan to approach artists and illustrators in Mumbai to create sticker and poster art, as well as poets and lyricists to contribute their writings on mobility, the city and transport-related themes (similar to the “Poetry on the Underground” and “Arts in Motion” programmes on London and New York City subways and buses).
3. Do you think mobile technology and applications have to more inclusive to serve specific communities and undeveloped regions? If yes, in what ways?
See 4. below.
4. What recommendations you can provide to the policy and industry to make mobile applications serve more people in many good ways?:
We feel that essential public information can never serve its purpose if it is restricted into captive portals, or proprietary, vendor-specific applications and services.
These projects tend to have a short life, as they are built without common standards or open source code, which allow users and developers to incorporate frequent changes to routes and schedules, and make updates and improvements to features and usability.
Such initiatives must be catered to serve specific needs and audiences which will generate customer support and loyalty for mobile networks and device vendors.