Pulling JSON data from a public data API

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” ― Arthur Conan Doyle

The Go Code Colorado crew, photo by Allison Daniell of Stellar Propeller Studio
Go Code Colorado photos by Allison Daniell of Stellar Propeller Studio

I had the opportunity recently to participate in Go Code Colorado, an “apps challenge” (think weekend hackathon + startup pitch competition) meant to make public data more accessible. It was an awesome experience and it got me thinking about government/public data, and how to use it and combine it in ways that can help people.

Here’s a quick example of how to pull data from one such public data source,  the Colorado Business Entity Database.   Basically, anyone starting a new business or forming a business entity in Colorado, whether that be a sole proprietership, partnership, LLC, corporation, etc, has to file documents and register their business with the Secretary of State’s office, and that information becomes public data. What we’re going to do in this example is to use state-provided API to pull a list of current businesses in a particular ZIP code, and list out their names, street addresses, and cities.
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