
Government: Do You Really Need An API? - nantes
http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2012/government-do-you-really-need-an-api/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sunlightlabs%2Fblog+%28Sunlight+Labs+blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
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jerrya
The article and the one it links to both suffer from fallacy of the excluded
middle: the choice seemingly being that offering an API precludes offering the
bulk data. Neither article provides an example of a government agency that
only provides an API and does not provide the underlying bulk data.

I think both have their time and place.

I'd like to see a national standard for state, county, and city governments to
offer enumerable, reflective, APIs and/or bulk data with consistent, uniform,
predictable name and parameter conventions.

As an example, it would be easier for all (sez I, waving hands furiously) if I
can take a zip code, map it to a government entity, and directly query that
entity for its current sales tax rate.

