Code 'recipes' from IFTTT help you stay on top of government news
Need to get the latest scientific discovery or FCC filing as soon as they come out? IFTTT can help.
It's not exactly hard to find publicly available government info and new announcements online. A bunch of new IFTTT recipes (now officially called applets) can make sure you never miss them when they become available, though. The platform has revealed its first group of applets under a new initiative called Data Access Project, and they cover health and travel alerts, the latest news in cybersecurity, economy and other areas. IFTTT recipes follow the "if this happens, then do that" formula -- for instance, you can whip up a recipe to send yourself a text whenever Engadget posts on Twitter. That's also how the Data Access Project applets work.
As you can see in the images above, you can choose to get an email every time a certain government agency announces a new scientific discovery. You can tell IFTTT to make new Evernote updates, push Slack notifications or create Trello cards whenever certain departments makes an announcement, so and so forth. Even if you have no idea how to make IFTTT recipes, you can subscribe to all the Data Access Project Applets by making an account on the platform's website. If you do know how to make applets, though, you can go wild conjuring up formulas that put your connected devices, such as Philips' Hue lights, to good use.
IFTTT chief Linden Tibbets said in a statement:
"It's not that the information isn't out there -- companies, governments, and institutions are releasing information all the time. But for the average person, it's overwhelming.
We've built out services whose data impacts people in very real ways: governments, agencies, non-profits, transits, and other institutions. 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."
