61–70 of 87 posts
It's called a Web Service noobs!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm, not sure API vs data is productive to see as a dichotomy. Consider that an API might provide access to "raw" data directly. I'd ask not for data over APIs but for more universally useful properties such as stability, currency, consistency, etc.
> Hmm, not sure API vs data is productive to see as a dichotomy. It's not, necessarily. An API provides a [very] limited view into the data. A view selected by the publisher. That's part of the problem. > I'd ask not for data over APIs but for more universally useful properties such as stability, currency, consistency, etc. Amen. I'd add: clear license and usage conditions, simple and concise metadata, and frequent u…
Not sure whether that's likely, he was just pointing out that API vs data are not mutually exclusive.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4055622
Weird, I searched for the URL and also thought HN would automatically detect a dupe. Didn't mean to hijack a post!
yada yada ... barak-obama-directs-all-federal-agencies-to-have-an-api/
yada yada ... barak-obama-directs-all-federal-agencies-to-have-an-api/index.php
With regards searches, it depends on what you search for. HN_Search is not always obvious, and it doesn't index minute by minute. You may have done the search before the engine caught up.
"...Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, create a page on its website, located at www.[agency].gov/digitalstrategy, to publicly report progress in meeting the requirements of the Strategy in a machine-readable format.... ...implement the requirements of the Strategy within 12 months of the date of this memorandum and comply with the timeframes for specific actions specified therein" 3 months to get a "machi…
I'd like to see you hire an entire department's worth of people, wait for them to devise an API for your agency, code it, provision server space and servers, and deploy in 12 months!
This reminds me of the push here in NYC for all of the city agencies to open their data via an API. It's gotten better over time, but when the initiative first took flight, it was terrible. Some of the APIs flat out did not work, and the ones that did often returned all sorts of malformed, non-normalized data. It was a nightmare to work with. I'm curious if the government can do better.
I imagine after 15 years they may have a chance at this, but I would caution those of you who have never worked in huge government IT shops to take this with a grain of salt. The situation is so bad in many places that Congress has been passing laws making it illegal for the federal systems not to behave in a certain way. And still things are broken. We passed the point of desperation many years ago.
Big IT in general is broken, and government IT is the most dysfunctional of any IT on the planet. I remain hopeful that this executive order can accomplish something, but I'm not holding my breath on it. Hopeful is one thing. Excited like this guy is? Not at all. Maybe in another 15 years. Maybe.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A couple of points. Whenever you put the word 'government' and 'innovation' into the same sentence, you need to check your working. Government is, by and large, terrible at technical innovation. And innovation by mandate will, predictable, be a non-starter. That said, there are areas where it is appropriate - see my earlier examples (tranit bus feeds are another one) - where the relevant government agency has found a…
Perhaps I'm misinterpreting your use of the term technical innovation, but weren't the Manhattan Project, NASA and many military projects innovation by mandate that were extremely successful?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A couple of points. Whenever you put the word 'government' and 'innovation' into the same sentence, you need to check your working. Government is, by and large, terrible at technical innovation. And innovation by mandate will, predictable, be a non-starter. That said, there are areas where it is appropriate - see my earlier examples (tranit bus feeds are another one) - where the relevant government agency has found a…
Perhaps I'm misinterpreting your use of the term technical innovation, but weren't the Manhattan Project, NASA and many military projects innovation by mandate that were extremely successful?