But in the last several years - spurred by the spread of smartphones such as Apple's iPhone - something unexpected has been born: a largely organic public-private partnership, in which agencies make data more easily available, and app developers use the data to try to make money by making people's lives easier and more efficient.
SEPTA hopes to join the burgeoning movement this weekend. With Devnuts, a self-described "hackerspace" in Northern Liberties, the transit agency is cosponsoring a "hackathon" aimed at quickly producing apps that utilize SEPTA's wealth of real-time operational data.
About 25 to 30 people are expected, and you don't need to be a software geek to participate, says Mark Headd, a Wilmington resident who has worked both sides of the government-business divide. Headd once advised Delaware's governor on information technology. Now he's a developer for a Florida company, Voxeo, and has helped organize half a dozen hackathons here and elsewhere.
"I've been at many hackathons where it's a nontechnical person who has contributed the idea that has made the difference," Headd says.
Transit data are a common focus - tens of thousands of people use the systems daily and need to know about schedules, delays, and the like - but Headd won a silver medal at a Washington hackathon for developing the smartphone app that maps crimes in a user's vicinity.
What's the reward? The medals and prizes are of minimal value, in line with the $10 registration fee. Headd says the real return comes from the chance to improve your community and, perhaps, to do well by doing good.
At the end of the marathon weekend - Headd says participants sometimes arrive with sleeping bags - the hackathoners will own what they produce. Some may eventually sell their inventions via Apple's App Store or Google's Android Market.
