Application programming interfaces play a key role in helping government do more with less, especially for those with shrinking IT budgets, writes Federal Communications Commission Geographic Information Officer Michael Byrne in a recent blog post on FCC.gov.
Byrne cites the federal government’s new digital strategy, released last week by U.S. Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel and Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, and its “information-centric” approach to services as a key impetus in opening the door to more federal APIs.
“This broad approach to information technologies provides the innovative foundation for the entire strategy. Key to this approach is making our data more open by decoupling it from any predefined presentation layer; in short, publishing data as simple services which anyone can access,” writes Byrne.
“The value in this data-centric approach means individuals can read directly into data across government and access only what they need, without the overhead of often expensive, bulky software.”
As part of the digital strategy timeline, within the next 12 months, the General Services Administration will expand Data.gov to include a catalog that aggregates and centralizes all federal web APIs in one place.
A directory of FCC APIs can be found at fcc.gov/developers.
