--- published: true layout: post title: Opportunities with Government APIs tags: - Federal Government - State Government - City Government image: >- https://s3.amazonaws.com/kinlane-productions2/federal-government/state-2017/kin-lane-presidential-innovation-fellow.png --- I am diving back into my work to profile government APIs, and had a friend inquire about the opportunities that exist in the cracks of government APIs, so I figure I’d try to load as much of it back up into my head as possible, and share a few links with folks along the way. I will try to keep short and concise, and let past work, and upcoming work speak for itself, but I want to try to capture the momentum and interest I’ve had over the years. There is always a massive opportunity to build on top of the valuable digital resources produced as part of our government, but it is something that is rarely done well, and an opportunity that shifts dramatically from administration to administration. ### Federal Agencies I caught the bug with the API opportunity in DC after [Barack Obama directed that all federal agencies go machine readable by default](https://apievangelist.com/2012/06/01/barack-obama-directs-all-federal-agencies-to-have-an-api/). I went was invited to come to D.C. as [a Presidential Innovation Fellow](https://presidentialinnovationfellows.gov/fellows/kin-lane/) to work on [publishing data.json files in the root of federal agencies](https://apievangelist.com/2015/08/05/taking-another-look-at-where-we-are-at-with-datajson-files-for-federal-agencies/). Over the years I have kept an eye on the [state of APIs in the federal government](https://apievangelist.com/2017/07/27/state-of-apis-in-the-federal-government/ )), watching agencies that [have a dedicated developer domain](https://apievangelist.com/2018/09/04/the-federal-agencies-who-use-their-developer-domain-gov-subdomain/), and work every couple of years to [inventory the APIs that exist out of federal agencies](apievangelist.com/2022/10/29/taking-another-look-at-the-state-of-apis-and-data-across-us-federal-agencies/). I will do this again in the next month as part of my APIs.io API profiling work, and share more stories here on the blog. ### FHIR + CMS + HHS I first got a taste of APIs in healthcare while working at the VA and with HHS in D.C., and been watching closely ever since. I helped CMS and HHS with [the Blue Button portal onboarding process](https://apievangelist.com/2018/02/15/some-common-features-of-an-api-application-review-process/), contributed a [Postman Workspace for the FHIR specification](https://apievangelist.com/2019/09/18/creating-a-postman-collection-for-the-fast-healthcare-interoperability-resources-fhir-specification/), and been watching [the healthcare API regulation to come out of HHS to drive more interoperability](https://apievangelist.com/2020/05/05/hhs-and-cms-finalizes-rules-to-provide-patients-more-control-of-their-health-data-using-apis/), but also help keep [a handle on the costs associated with healthcare](https://apievangelist.com/2021/03/08/turning-centers-for-medicare-medicaid-services-providers-data-files-into-an-api/). I will be continuing this work to better understand the impact of regulation and standards, but also [push for more healthcare API workflows using the Arazzo spec](https://apievangelist.com/2024/11/19/we-need-fast-healthcare-interoperability-resources-fhir-api-arazzo-workflows-to-deliver-the-real-world-healthcare-experiences/). ### Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) I worked at the VA as Presidential Innovation Fellow, and my father and stepfather were both veterans, so VA work has always been near and dear to my heart. I did a lot of work back in the day to respond to [round one](https://apievangelist.com/2017/10/26/my-response-on-the-department-of-veterans-affairs-rfi-for-the-lighthouse-api-management-platform/ )) as well as [round two](https://apievangelist.com/2018/02/24/department-of-veterans-affairs-lighthouse-platform-rfi-round-two/) of the RFI for the VA developer portal, which resulted in [a deep landscape analysis and report on where the VA should take things](https://skylight-hq.github.io/va-api-landscape/report/). I feel that [the API work coming out of the VA is very important](https://apievangelist.com/2018/08/30/why-i-feel-the-department-of-veterans-affairs-api-effort-is-so-significant/), and regularly keep an eye on [what they are producing via their developer portal](https://apievangelist.com/2018/08/28/reviewing-the-department-of-veterans-affairs-va-new-developer-portal/). There is still so much work to be done in this community around making the lives of veterans better, and improving the care and resources available for veterans across the United States. ### Department of Education I did a lot of work with the Department of Education, but most of the links are gone these days because I relied on their GitHub repository to be the record. [I did several rounds of work with them on how to open up access to data, and improve the FAFSA process. K-12, Universities, and FAFSA continue to be very low hanging fruit when it comes to making an impact with APIs](https://apievangelist.com/2014/06/02/my-response-to-how-can-the-department-of-education-increase-innovation-transparency-and-access-to-data/), but sadly I don’ think the new administration will continue this work, and it will be shifted back down to states to get things done. It isn’t just the work with Department of Education that has gone missing, there are links on my work, but also every other agency that are broken and missing, showing just how fragile all of this work is. ### Census Bureau [I spent time at Census Bureau offices talking to them about APIs, convincing them of the reality that they could reach entirely new audiences with APIs](https://apievangelist.com/2013/08/22/delivering-value-for-developers-is-first-when-it-comes-to-the-census-bureau-apis/). I worked with them to understand the value they could bring to the table with their APIs, and [I have published a Postman Collection and workspace to support the work](https://apievangelist.com/2020/09/10/an-openapi-and-postman-collections-for-the-census-api/). I am eager to dive into their APIs again and better understand how the data can be applied as part of web, mobile, and now AI applications. The Census Data is foundational stuff for many other systems, applications, visualizations, and using technology to make sense of our world at scale. ### Department of the Interior I did a lot of work at Interior while I was in DC and specifically around the monetization of public data. [I worked with the Department of Agriculture on their parks and recreation RFP](https://apievangelist.com/2014/10/16/i-need-help-to-make-sure-the-dept-of-agriculture-leads-with-apis-in-their-parks-and-recreation-rfp/), but more importantly [I made the argument that there is a precedent for charging for high volume access to government data](https://apievangelist.com/2015/08/24/setting-a-precedent-when-charging-for-high-volume-access-to-government-apis/). It is something I’ve gotten a lot of push back on over the years, but I still feel very strongly that this is how we fund the future of APIs, data, AI, and government. ### Other Federal Agencies I did a lot of work on [EPA](https://apievangelist.com/2015/07/25/taking-a-look-at-whats-next-for-the-environmental-protection-agency-epa-envirofacts-data-service-api/) and [Labor](https://apievangelist.com/2016/09/26/taking-another-look-at-the-department-of-labor-api-efforts/), as well as GSA, FDIC, and even NASA. [I am also working hard to get up to speed on the 1033 rule coming out of CFPB](ttps://apievangelist.com/2024/10/23/fdx-1033-api-nutrients/). I will make sure I give each of these agencies more time as part of my storytelling with this next round. I am very concerned with what will be happening over the next four years, so I think inventorying what is happening will play an important role in helping document the history of data and APIs in government. ### Outside of Federal Government There is a lot of other data and API work happening outside of the federal government at the city, county, and state levels. I am bummed that I can’t find any work I did here that is worth citing, but you can search for [city data portals](https://www.google.com/search?q=city+data+portals), [county data portals](https://www.google.com/search?q=city+data+portals), and [state data portals](https://www.google.com/search?q=city+data+portals) to get a taste for the opportunities out there. You can also look at the [211](https://openreferral.org/), [311](https://apievangelist.com/2017/08/02/when-cities-use-a-common-api-definition-to-report-non-emergency-issues/ ), and [511](https://github.com/open511) API standards work that has occurred to understand the data that is present for the health and human services, non-emergency community happenings, as well as transit and travel. I will do another fresh round up of the data portals that exist as they are mostly [CKAN](https://ckan.org/) or [DKAN](https://dkan.readthedocs.io/en/latest/), but so much was lost with the acquisition of [Socrata](https://dev.socrata.com/), a startup that was catering to the API space at the intersection of city, state, and federal government I am eager to dive into profiling federal, state, and city API and data efforts again. I am always very overwhelmed with the scope of work across these layers of our world, and just how few people are aware of the valuable digital resources that exist there. I am hoping I will be able to deliver a more sophisticated look at what is happening using [APIs.json](https://apisjson.org) and everything I’ve learned over the years. The reality on the ground will be a real true test of the archivability, cachability, and how APIs.json deals with deprecation and things going away. This stuff is so fragile, and I feel like if I am get better at capturing on the past and present of API efforts, but need to properly document things, that we can hang onto more of the accumulated knowledge that seems to get lost over the years and with the change of each administration and priorities.