Civic APIs

Mike suggested a theme last week of APIs for civic good. While researching this topic, I stumbled across Google's Civic API, which provides information on elected officials. Unfortunately, it is being shut down later this year. While trying to find a replacement for the API, I fell down a tunnel of how other government bodies handle civic data and how important access to it is.

I have shared links from the EU, the US, Australia, and the UK, and you can see the different approaches each country takes to this sort of data. You can skip the first four links if you're just after the weekly round up.

-- Alexander

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The API Round-Up

API News, links, and tools from around the web

Google Civic Information API

Enter someone's state and get their elected official. Like I said in the intro, Google is shutting it down in April this year. The data seems to have come from Tech and Civic Life, so someone could easily spin up another. Interestingly, the US appears to rely on private companies to get this data via an API.

Developer Hub UK

I fell out of my chair when I discovered what the UK has available: APIs on elected officials, what they vote on, bills, strategies, and more. Using Open API spec 3.0.1, the APIs are presented with Swagger Docs. It's amazing to see this level of detail from the government itself.

OpenAustralia Foundation

OpenAustralia is a charity foundation that presents data on elected officials, votes, and planning alerts. After seeing what the UK offers, I am very disappointed that the government does not do this. Looking at the official government list of APIs, we have five listed, and one is an example API. Come on, Australia.

EU Developers Corner

The EU is leaps and bounds ahead of Australia, offering a complete list of APIs. One area where the EU goes further is offering ready-to-download datasets of the data that powers its APIs. It is open, transparent, and accessible, which is terrific.

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Fast HTTP V1.59

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Jira Rest API

We all know that everyone loves Jira 😰. Well, now you can interact with it purely through a TypeScript API with nearly complete coverage of Jira Cloud, Service Desk, and Jira Agile.

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Thanks so much to our members: Kin L, Juxt, Alex R, Nolan S, Frank, James D, Bill D, Rich, and Umair. Your support means the world to us!

Until next time,
Alexander, Phil & Mike