Measuring Value Exchange Around Government Data Using API Management

I’ve written about how the startup community has driven the value exchange that occurs at the API management layer down a two lane road with API monetizatin and plans. To generate the value that investors have been looking for, we have ended up with a free, pro, enterprise approach to measuring value exchanged with API integration, when in reality there is so much more going on here. Something that really becomes evident when you begin evaluating the API conversations going on across government at all levels.

In conversation after conversation I have with government API folk I hear that they don’t need API management reporting, analysis, and billing features. There is a perception that government isn’t selling access to APIs, so API management measurement isn’t really needed. Missing out on a huge opportunity to be measuring, analyzing, and reporting upon API usage, and requiring a huge amount of re-education on my part to help API providers within government to understand how they need to be measuring value exchange at the API management level.

Honestly, I’d love to see government agencies actually invoicing API consumers at all levels for their usage. Even if the invoices aren’t in dollars. Measuring API usage, reporting, quantifying, and sending an invoice for usage each month would help bring awareness to how government digital resources are being put to use (or not). If all data, content, and algorithms in use across federal, state, and municipal government were available via APIs, then measured, rate limited, and reported upon across all internal, partner, and public consumers–the awareness around the value of government digital assets would increase significantly.

I’m not saying we should charge for all access to government data. I’m saying we should be measuring and reporting upon all access to government data. The APIs, and a modern API management layer is how you do this. We have the ability to measure the value exchanged and generated around government digital resources, and we shouldn’t let misconceptions around how the private sector measures and generates revenue at the API layer interfere with government agencies benefitting from this approach. If you are publishing an API at a government agency, I’d love to learn more about how you are managing access to your APIs, and how you are reporting upon the reading and writing of data across applications, and learn more about how you are sharing and communicating around these consumption reports.