APIs: 5 Government Success Stories

Last April, federal CIO Steven VanRoekel sent out a tweet that foretold a significant shift in federal IT policy. The White House’s new strategy for digital government outlines a number of policy priorities intended to maximize technology efficiencies for federal agencies. Government technical staff noted the priority VanRoekel, and the strategy, placed on APIs. The tweet, which included the term API in quotes, also included the telling hashtag #yesitisthesecretsauce.

The strategy intended to guide federal government IT calls upon agencies to be “information-centric” and make as much useful information as possible available in a public way. Open data, content and Web APIs are referred to as the new default for information. Agencies are also asked to work toward making existing data open in this same way, with priority placed on the most valuable data.

Richard Fong, a consultant for government communications provider GovDelivery, revealed in a webinar Thursday, Sept. 13, that many federal agencies have made significant strides in their constituent engagement efforts using APIs...