By Lee Dowsett published on

Government and APIs

As society and government moves further into the digital age, we need to explore ways that technology can improve our interactions. In my work as an Enterprise Architect, I like to boil down our vision to minimising the friction that government services and compliance have on people’s lives. Certain types of technology stand out as absolutely key in achieving that outcome, and first among those are Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). APIs are the plumbing and the glue which make the digital ecosystem fit together. They make it possible to interact with government through the software that you already use, rather than having to come to us every time. For government, APIs have the potential to radically transform our business models, spending patterns and levels, and bring the ability to move much quicker than we have been able to in the past.

In 2016 the Government Chief Information Officer facilitated the creation of a set of guidelines and standards for public sector agencies for developing and using APIs. They are still in their infancy but we’ve had a lot of great feedback on them, and I’m convinced that they have some value to private sector and other governments even this early.

There is valuable API guidance available:

Utility links and page information