There are several drivers for engaging on an API initiative. It can be that you want to increase internal control and manage integrations, gain control of your microservices strategy, enable new business opportunities, or it can be about making sure that your data is made available to the public.
In Sweden there is a governmental initiative imposing public sector organisations to make open data available wherever possible. An API approach to this challenge is an excellent way of implementing the initiative in a flexible and open approach.
We have worked together with Swedish governmental agency Lantmäteriet to publish geographical data through APIs. In my view this is a en excellent example of a forward looking organisation that focuses on the opportunities with open data and enables them to the public, rather than focusing on the possible challenges or pitfalls. By using APIs to publish data, Lantmäteriet always has control over who is using their data, to what extent and what it is being used for. This way they can always disconnect unintended usage and use an opportunistic approach to make data accessible and explore possible usage that the organisation themselves might never have thought of.
ENABLE INNOVATION BEYOND EXISTING BORDERS
Putting myself in the shoes of a public sector organisation I realize that it might be a bit hard to figure out what the published data is to be used for, also I don't want to put constraints on how the data is being used. Once the decision is made to make a piece of data publicly available it would be interesting to see how this would be used by new target groups, app developers, engineers, organisations or whoever accesses the data.
This is the whole idea behind making the public data open and accessible – to enable innovation and cooperation beyond existing organisational borders. I think that an API initiative is the perfect approach to achieve this.
PUBLIC DATA "API STORE"
By using APIs, an organisation can make data publicly available and yet be in control of usage. What the data is being used for is up to the consumer. This is the way to go for Swedish public sector organisations to live up to the Public Data directive and I am happy that our organisation has been involved in making public geographical data from Lantmäteriet accessible through APIs.
Hopefully we will see more public sector organisations follow in the foot steps of Lantmäteriet. And why not establish a vision of a public data ”API Store” in a near future, where APIs for publicly available data from various public sector organisations could be made available? My guess is that we would see several new innovative services and combinations of data that would be of service to the public from such a concept. The future will tell. In the meantime you can read about our cooperation with Lantmäteriet here.
