You might have already heard of IFTTT – which is short for coding mantra “If This Then That” – which is an outfit that provides web-based services to allow apps and hardware that would not otherwise talk to each other to communicate. IFTTT would allow you, for instance, to trigger a specific light bulb in your house for specific situations (weather, time, etc). That’s just the beginning of what IFTTT is, but we focus now on some new applets that they are making available for the general public.
Through IFTTT’s Data Access Project, the general public can now have access to public data from more than 35 federal and state agencies. Through applets, the data from these agencies are now more accessible, manipulable, and shareable across devices. Starting this coming Thursday, IFTTT is turning access for public data sources across agencies that include the Library of Congress, National Science Foundation, Energy Information Association, and more.
And because IFTTT lets you connect internet data with other stuff, the configurations are endless. You can get your Phillips Hue Light to flash a certain color every time there’s a new SEC filing that’s relevant to you. You can program it so that you an SMS message every time the State Department posts travel warnings. Or a Slack notification each time the Department of Defense posts an update.
“We’ve built out services whose data impacts people in very real ways: governments, agencies, non-profits, transits, and other institutions,” IFTTT CEO Linden Tibbets said. “Now people can easily find, and use, that information in brand new ways. We’re excited to see the response, and plan to expand the Data Access Project with more services in the near future.”
SOURCE: IFTTT
