The FCC is leading by example with its beta release of the FCC.gov website on Monday. In this latest version of the site, the FCC has worked hard to follow Web 2.0 principles, most notably building the entire website on top of RESTful APIs. “Everything should be an API”, FCC managing director Steve Van Roekel said during the press briefing, according to O’Reilly’s report.
The FCC move is part of a growing trend of APIs being used for internal development in order to effectively deploy everything from websites to mobile applications. The most notable may be Twitter’s redesigned website which it launched last September. The new Twitter site consumes the same APIs used by its ecosystem developers.
Van Roekel gave some background for the redesign. As part of it, beta.fcc.gov will also be the center of an open, API-driven ecosystem. This will include:
This new API-driven approach is meant to standardize the FCC’s approach to delivering information between internal groups, via its website, and with the community at-large, while making good on its promise for a more open government. The FCC first released an API last September.
To see the government make this move represents an important step for APIs, with the FCC now taking the lead and showing the importance of APIs in this new technology driven economy.
U.S. Communications Data Service
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10 Responses to ““Everything Should Be an API,” Says FCC”
at 9:19 am
Good post Kin,
Glad to see the FCC is serious enough about their APIs that it is building its website around them. That is a sure sign to their developer community that they are committed. Great to see you posting on PW!
at 11:41 am
Thanks Justin.
I agree. It shows that RESTful APIs are maturing. And when the government is demonstrating this kind forward thinking, one can hope others follow.
I”ll be following /data and /developer channels closely. I don’t want to see the same fate as data.gov. Hopefully they truly see their APIs as essential to operations
and never as a “budget line item”.
Stoked to be part of PW!
at 2:14 pm
Nice Article. Are RESTfull APIs and web services the same thing? It seems like service orientation and everything becoming a service is taking roots. BTW we us a product called JaxView for security and monitoring of such APIs for our internal and external cloud. very cool.
at 1:01 pm
Great to see a government take a progressive approach with web development and APIs. I wrote about how crucial APIs are here: http://www.trendslate.com/2010/11/24/lead-with-your-api/
at 7:33 pm
[...] to follow Web 2.0 principles, most notably building the entire website on top of RESTful APIs." — Programmable Web "It puts fcc.gov on the road to becoming one of the best government communications [...]
at 10:23 pm
[...] brought a .com mentality to the FCC, including a perspective that “everything should be an API” that caught some tech observers, and worked with a new media team that established a voice [...]
at 11:11 am
[...] brought a .com mentality to the FCC, including a perspective that “everything should be an API” that caught some tech observers’ eye. He worked with an innovative new media team that [...]
at 5:05 pm
[...] to follow Web 2.0 principles, most notably building the entire website on top of RESTful APIs." — Programmable Web "It puts fcc.gov on the road to becoming one of the best government communications [...]
at 3:48 pm
[...] in April, the FCC launched their API driven content platform, stating that “Everything should be an API”. In doing so the FCC did two very significant [...]
at 11:21 am
[...] site available via an API. MyFCC continues with the earlier vision of Steve Van Roekel, that Every Site Should be an API, which we covered back in April, 2011. Van Roekel was then the managing director of the FCC, and [...]