Summary

Data.gouv.fr is the online vehicle of the French government’s Open Data policy. As such, Data.gouv.fr is the national Open Data portal through which public information is published, centralized and shared freely by the government, public institutions and local government.

Case Description

Target Users

Administrative | Business (self-employed) | Business (industry) | Business (SME) | Citizen | Civil society | Intermediaries | Other

Target Users Description

The government wants to centralize public data in one unique platform to promote data reuse and facilitate the creation of applications and services. Data.gouv.fr is built on a collaborative framework that simplifies and encourages interaction between government, businesses, individuals and citizens.

Policy Context

Data.gouv.fr was set up on May 26, 2011, following a circular from François Fillon - the French Prime Minister at the time. This document validates the creation of an inter-ministerial portal, managed and controlled by Etalab. Etalab is a government agency under the authority of the Prime Minister, set up by a decree issued in 2011. Etalab was commissioned by the Prime Minister to design the Data.gouv.fr portal and to coordinate the reuse of public data. Etalab is now part of SGMAP (Secrétariat général pour la modernisation de l’action publique -General secretariat for the modernization of public action).

Data.gouv.fr intends to:

• Allow the reuse of public information in the easiest and widest way possible;
• Encourage innovation throughout the whole community of developers and businesses to support the development of the digital economy;
• Contribute to greater transparency of government action.

In September 2013, the then Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault sent a circular to ministries asking them to implement the recommendations (compiled in a vade-mecum) relating to the publication of their data on the platform Data.gouv.fr. This handbook should enable all departments to implement an effective policy on Open Data.

A national Chief Data Officer is appointed

To strengthen the role of Open Data at the heart of the government’s digital agenda, France became the first country to appoint a national Chief Data Officer (Administrateur général des données - AGD). His or her role is defined in a decree published on 17 September 2014. Placed under the authority of the Prime Minister and attached to SGMAP, this French government Open Data officer was appointed to:

• Coordinate government actions in terms of the inventorying, governance , production, circulation and use of data ;
• Organise the best use of these data and their wider circulation, while respecting privacy and secrecy laws;
• Suggest strategies to the Prime Minister to make data reuse easier;
• Create tools, frameworks and methodologies to support data mining and discovery ; and
• Make recommendations to promote interoperability between IT systems and data.

Etalab Director Henri Verdier was officially appointed to this position on September 19, 2014.

Case Abstract

A collaborative portal

Last December, Etalab presented a new version of the platform Data.gouv.fr that put forward a collaborative approach between data producers, data re-users and citizens. This new design is the result of a co-design process between Etalab and the French Open Data community.

Public and government institutions can publish their own data sets that citizens can enhance. The enhanced data set can then be published on the platform by the citizens. Citizens can also share their own data sets if they are in the public interest. These data sets can deal, for example, with the state of roads, the inventory of the local library or the nutritional composition of foods, said Etalab. Applications that reuse data can be shared and published in order to create a community around each project – for example a map of the charging points for electric vehicles. Everyone handling the data can gain visibility.

This second iteration of Data.gouv.fr also attempts to prioritise the quality of the data in the data sets. Each data set published on the platform can be associated with information (resources) that describe and define the data more precisely: the period and area covered by the data set, if the data have already been reused, and so on. Companies can publish their financial and operating performances. These resources help the data to be better ranked in the platform. Data with private information (like some medical information) are not accepted on the platform.

Public institutions can apply online to be certified and gain more visibility, be better ranked and be recognised by the citizens as a genuine French public institution.

An Open Licence

All data published and shared by a public institution are under an Open Licence. This Open Licence has been created by Etalab to better serve the Open Data policy of the French government and promote the reuse of data. Regional governments can select an Open Licence or Open Database Licence. Finally, non-profit associations and individuals can publish their data under the Open Licence and are free to choose a licence for reusing their data, said Etalab. Etalab generally recommends Open Licence.

Open Source and GitHub

Data.gouv.fr is based on CKAN, an Open Source data platform developed by the non-profit organisation Open Knowledge Foundation. Basically, CKAN allows governments, public administrations and companies to develop a data management system to publish, exchange and share knowledge and information.

Data.gouv.fr uses CKAN API v3 to exchange information on data sets. Etalab developed an extension for CKAN for the French portal. Some fields in the standard interface were hidden and some specific fields were added. This extension, like all the technical work on Data.gouv.fr carried out by Etalab, is available on GitHub and shared with the Open Source community. Etalab lists all the fields required for Data.gouv.fr on a wiki. Etalab also provides APIs for Data.gouv.fr.

Results

To date, 13 752 data sets have been published. Data.gouv.fr is gathering data from every French administration and ministry but also data from international statistics organisations, like Eurostat or the World Bank. Almost 900 data sets have been reused and included in applications or projects.

Multimedia

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18nc2a_data-gouv-fr_webcam