We’ve got the data; you’ve got the fresh ideas. Let’s bring them together. — FAA Data Innovation Center 

The FAA website is a pretty big place. As with many large cyber-places, I gen­erally tend to stick to particular path­ways and specific sites. That’s efficient — even essential when I am in a hurry to get information my bosses want — but it also means there are many places I haven’t seen. Moreover, I don’t even know what I don’t know until I some­how surf into something interesting. 

So it was that, in the process of developing content for this issue’s focus on data-driven decision making, I surfed into a site that was new to me and possibly to you as well. It turns out that the FAA website includes a Data Innovation Center (faa.gov/ got_data). As the intro page notes, the Data Innovation Center serves as “the” access portal for the agency’s aeronautical data and products. 

As with most FAA website pages, you can subscribe to get update notices — in this case, updates on aeronautical data, digital downloads of chart and data products, and web services for product and underlying data APIs (application programming interface). But wait — there’s more. 

Join the Party! 

Noting that “collaboration is key to innovation,” the website also offers ways that you can connect and work with other stakeholders to help advance the aviation industry. You can join forums that let you share com­ments, submit questions, and request feedback on ideas. More could follow, but here are the three existing forums. 

(FAA.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/ aeronav/acf): This public forum occurs twice yearly and is the primary method of adding and modifying charting specifications. 

(FAAedai.Ideascale.com): Mod­erated by the FAA, IdeaScale is a social collaboration forum that allows participants to prioritize ideas and solicit feedback about innovative uses of FAA data. 

(opendata.stackexchange.com): This one is a question-and-an­swer site for developers and researchers. Please note that the FAA does not moderate the Stack Exchange forum. 

More to Come 

Recognizing that FAA data is a criti­cal product to safety and that devel­opers have a role to play, the FAA will launch Got Data 2.0 this fall. Given ever-evolving customer needs, organizations can no longer rely on small, dedicated innovation. Got Data 2.0 will therefore connect data and developers to enable the creation of innovative solutions. The broader ecosystem facilitates innovation and support for new products and offers APIs a crucial role in linking organi­zations and technologies. 

Part of Got Data 2.0 is to modern­ize the Data.FAA.gov (DFG) portal, which will be the clearinghouse for publicly available FAA data. There will also be a new developer portal to provide APIs so developers can freely access open specifications and obtain self-service access to FAA data to use in their applications. AFG will also enable FAA data product publishers to create APIs and securely connect their data products to consumers and stakeholders. 

You’ll find the link under the “Learn More” header. Click away! Consider bookmarking or, better yet, subscribing to this page to get all the latest and greatest info. (FAA Safety Briefing – SepOct 2020)