USAID enhances open data toolset -- GCN

"The U.S. Agency for International Development is opening its data sets and wrapping them in an application programming interface (API) so that they can be dynamically updated on any app or software using them. The /developer website, as USAID calls usaid.gov/developer, is the latest in a series of sites the agency set up to meet President Obama’s Open Government Initiative, which promotes transparency, participation and collaboration. The main difference between /developer and /data, which shares all of USAID’s raw data, is that the latter is updated at least quarterly while /developer is updated continuously.   'The www.usaid.gov/developer webpage is our repository of machine-to-machine connections where you can find dynamic linkages to data that may be changing on a regular basis,' said Brandon Pustejovsky, a senior program analyst at USAID.   'Some of this data is already available,' he added. “The missing link at this point is that dynamic connection, where people can feed that data directly into their own software application for their own innovative use.  Regardless of what kind of global development data it is, that can pop up on this site once we get that machine-to-machine connection established.” Here’s how it works: Developers go to usaid.gov/developer and choose from any of nine data sets and APIs. With a click, they can submit an HTTP request without authentication to see the data – in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) or XML – that they can drop into their app to create their own tool or conduct research ..."