FCC wants to bring Web developers and agencies together

The Federal Communications Commission announced it will host a ".Gov Developer Meet-Up" that organizers hope will encourage Web developers and agencies needing apps to interact.

The amount of raw data produced by government agencies and made available to the public has increased markedly since the Obama administration's promulgation of the Open Government Directive. While "data" once meant spreadsheets and documents, it now includes large sets of raw numbers and information that can be organized, reorganized, displayed, mixed and mashed up in custom applications.

Federal agencies increasingly make data available through application programming interfaces (APIs) and Web services. But there is still no comprehensive forum for potential developers to see the full scope of available resources. The ".Gov Developer Meet-Ups" aim to fill that void.

Applications built to handle Open Government data can help users both in government and the private sector see how efficiently a given agency operates, and in some cases, help the agency use resources more effectively.

The meet-up is set to take place in room TW-C305 at 11 a.m., Monday, April 16, the agency said. Potential participants should email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by Thursday evening.