Event IV (11/12/2019): APIs for governments: public sector track and workshop

APIs are a foundational component of modern digital architectures, impacting every sector of the global economy. In the public sector, APIs are a key enabler to accelerate the digital evolution of governments and its agencies. The European Commission has conducted the two-year study “Digital Government APIs. The road to added value Open API-driven services (APIs4DGov)”. The study investigates onto two main questions: (1) Why governments should invest in the adoption of API technologies and, if yes, (2) How they could adopt them. The study is nearing its conclusion, and we are eager to share our progress and interim outcomes (including API best practices) and to get your feedback on future direction.

The APIdays are the world’s leading API conference series and represent a perfect opportunity to facilitate the dialogue between public and private sector and to explore innovative dynamics for the co-creation of functional digital ecosystems using APIs as connectors.

In this event the APIs4DGov team will organised i) a public sector track where governments presented the actors and dynamics of their API fuelled digital ecosystems, specifically, with representatives from government at European, National, Regional and Local levels and ii) a workshop where API best practices and recommendations distilled from the analysis of extensive literature were presented and discussed with the attendance.

In particular, this edition was an ideal industry conference for government stakeholders with a work focus or interest in APIs to:

-          Learn from industry experts and leaders around the world about the latest API technology and management approaches that will influence your professional work for years to come. This was a key professional development opportunity for any public service professional with responsibility for managing an API program within their governments. The conference catered to the needs of both technical and policy/program management public sector professionals.

-          Attend to a specific public sector track (11th December). Hear cutting edge, innovative examples from across Europe on how APIs are at the centre of new government operations, service delivery and industry partnerships. Participants learned how these successful projects built support, overcame roadblocks, and changed the way governments operate thanks to successfully introducing API strategies.

-          Participate in a workshop specifically focused on sharing Europe’s most comprehensive study so far on government API best practices (11th December). All participants received a draft copy of our comprehensive research drawn from over 300 documents about government and private industry best practices. They help us validating our series of recommendations that were collected together as a set of evidence-based API framework proposals for government.

[1] This event is part of a series of public-private co-organised APIdays sessions in 2019. Former events were held at the APIdays 2019 events in Helsinki and Barcelona.