Feds Release APIs For Tapping Government Data

The federal government has released new software code and resources to let developers access data to create new applications as part of its ongoing open-data transparency effort. The Federal Register has released the application programming interface (API) for FederalRegister.gov, which allows developers to retrieve data from the website for reuse. The Department of Labor (DOL) has gone several steps further, launching what it's calling a "first of its kind" website specifically devoted to allowing software developers to take department data and incorporate it into Web and mobile applications.

The Federal Register is the official daily newspaper of the federal government and traditionally has been the primary source of new federal rules and regulations. The open source API for the site was designed to be particularly developer friendly, according to a Federal Register blog post...