What if?
The Scoop:
The simple answer is that APIs are an extension of what reporters do every day: ask questions. The difference is that instead of forcing reporters to gather data from multiple sources, format it to fit your local database needs and then update that database when new releases are available, APIs allow reporters to query live data from all over the Web. If you have experience working with, say, Microsoft Access and setting up an ODBC connection to a remote database, APIs are kind of like that – except that you have near-instant access to more sources of data, more useful tools (like geocoders) and more timely information than ever before.
