France has released the beta version of its open government data website; data.gouv.fr. Following the wave of open government data portals around the world and the Commission’s Open Data Strategy the French open data portal data.gouv.fr is one step towards a new governance model which aims to be more open, participative and Internet driven.
As from the end of 2011, France joined the group of EU Member States which have a dedicated government open data portal. Among others EU Member States the UK (data.gov.uk), Belgium (data.gov.be) and the Netherlands (data.overheid.nl) have already launched their open data portals.
Data.gouv.fr aims to foster collaboration, innovation and to increase government transparency by facilitating the access and re-use of public sector information. The portal brings together data from many public agencies among them the French institute for statistics INSEE, most of the ministries (Finance, Culture, etc), and several state-owned companies (like the French railway company SNCF).
Examples of the approximately 350 000 open data sets that are available in data.gouv.fr are a list of 3000+ train stations with geographic location, geographic location of road accidents; the comprehensive list of books in Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the France national budget, etc.
To know more
- data.gov.uk
- data.gov.be
- data.overheid.nl)
- European Public Sector Information Platform
- Government opens up data with data.gouv.fr on news item on ePractice
- Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information
- Open data - An engine for innovation, growth and transparent governance