The state of Michigan is releasing API's this fall on five themes: jobs, tourism, safety, veterans and foster kids. The event will be held October 4-6 at the M@dison building in Detroit in cooperation with Detroit Labs. Register at www.codemichigan.com
this is a great initiative by the State of Michigan. We need more gov agencies to expose their data via public api's for developers to create innovative civic apps.
I keep telling people that we can be a leader in Michigan. There are already volunteer efforts underway in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo to create city API's.
Hopefully Code Michigan can put open data on the road map for a lot of other state municipalities.
For some reason, I'm always fascinated by governments releasing APIs for public data. It seems like a data set you could do some powerful things with. When governments take the time to build out a nice API to consume this data, it makes me like them more, too.
If you want to use your skills to give back here's your chance. If you want to start a company and were looking for an idea here's your opportunity. For more: http://www.michigan.gov/minewswire/0,4629,7-136-3452-308213-...
This is a project I've been involved with since the beginning. Here's my blog post:
http://www.codemichigan.com/post/get-your-secret-power