EV Charger Maps

[seventyseven]

Hey all, great discussion. I'm founder of Recargo and I would like to give you our position on data sharing and my personal perspective on the various efforts to map charging stations.

Recargo is committed to sharing basic charger location data such as address and charging capabilities. We haven't selected the license for data sharing nor have we released our API to developers yet; I expect that to happen no later than first quarter of 2011. I'm happy to get feedback from everyone here on what path we should take to better serve the community. I don't think we need to agree on data formats right now, what's more important is the pledge to share. In fact...

I'm calling for government agencies, charging network providers, parking services, manufacturers and other stakeholders to share basic charger location data as part of a successful EV infrastructure rollout. Sometimes just knowing that a charger is there is enough to sway car buying decisions, and the more outlets for information the better we can address range anxiety and other concerns.

I applaud your efforts to create an open source database of chargers. You may want to think about joining a larger project, such as OpenStreetMap.org, to take advantage of their resources and "installed" base of users.

Brian

BTW Google Maps can be used to find EV chargers already and my guess is they are going to improve for this purpose over time.

[Kevin Sharpe]

Recargo is committed to sharing basic charger location data such as address and charging capabilities. We haven't selected the license for data sharing nor have we released our API to developers yet; I expect that to happen no later than first quarter of 2011. I'm happy to get feedback from everyone here on what path we should take to better serve the community. I don't think we need to agree on data formats right now, what's more important is the pledge to share. In fact...

If you are serious about sharing the data then please add a GPL or similar license and host it on a server that is outside of your control. I have no issue with you making money from your website and apps using the data. However, I want to ensure that the data remains open so that it's always available even if you take a nose dive. IMO neither the community nor charge site developers will contribute data to a closed system once an open system is up and running....

PLEASE support the community and get involved with the Open Charge Map project. Help us define a database that's going to enable the transition of the EV to the mainstream. In return you will receive considerable community support and active promotion from charge point projects such as ours.

I applaud your efforts to create an open source database of chargers. You may want to think about joining a larger project, such as OpenStreetMap.org, to take advantage of their resources and "installed" base of users.

I'm completely open to collaboration with other mapping sites and we are exploring a number of projects including OpenStreetMap. I do not wish to reinvent the wheel but also feel it's important that the basic data remains available for all to use.

[doug]

Someday the whole thing needs to be automated.

This is part of the reason I like Coulomb's solution. All their stations come with a low cost GPRS (or similar) cellular data connection and a-GPS. A soon as it's connected it communicates with their system giving its status and location. Does anyone know if Coulomb releases this data to the public and/or provides APIs for developers?

[Kevin Sharpe]

Does anyone know if Coulomb releases this data to the public and/or provides APIs for developers?

I reached out to Coulomb but never received a response.... my guess is that it's another proprietary and closed system.

[Kevin Sharpe]

I think we are gaining some real traction with the OpenChargeMap project. While we still have some final decisions to make, it's likely that we will host a MySQL database on sourceforge with all data freely available under a PDDL license;

www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/pddl/1-0

The database will include a web front end for data entry, and a tool for exporting data in multiple formats including XML. The data entry will be moderated to ensure that it is always of a high quality.

We expect the data to be used immediately by a number of the existing charger apps, and GIS projects including OpenStreetMap and MapQuest.

We are hosting a get together in London in early November. Please let me know if you would like to attend.

We are also looking for contributors worldwide.... please contact me directly or add your comments to the sourceforge project site if you'd like to help;

http://openchargemap.sourceforge.net

If you want to stop the madness that is the dozens of proprietary and closed charge site databases, then now's the time to get involved.

[vfx]

...
If you want to stop the madness that is the dozens of proprietary and closed charge site databases, then now's the time to get involved.

http://www.socalev.org/index.htm

[Kevin Sharpe]

http://www.socalev.org/index.htm

Many thanks... I'll contact them and see if we can get them involved in the OpenChargeMap project.

[vfx]

Many thanks... I'll contact them and see if we can get them involved in the OpenChargeMap project.

So the question is, how many more of these regional programs are going on worldwide?

[Kevin Sharpe]

So the question is, how many more of these regional programs are going on worldwide?

I guess a lot... I've seen two new ones this week. Maybe once they become aware of OpenChargeMap they'll consider contributing to the project rather than building yet another database...

[TEG]

http://www.electriccarsite.co.uk/ele...harging-points