The project ‘Collectif Open Data France’ will use the DCAT metadata vocabulary to harmonise how datasets are described by local data publishers and data catalogues. This common layer of metadata is expected to significantly improve the discoverability of datasets in France.
The Open Data movement in France is very active. At a national level, the movement is structured around the “Etalab” mission, led by the Prime Minister. At a regional and local level, a new project has recently been created under the name « Collectif Open Data France ». The objective is to federate all stakeholders involved in sharing Public Open Data in France. The project was presented at the Open Data week that was held in Nantes in May 2012.
The project is divided into 8 different workshops. One of them (#3 – Dataset des Datasets) consists of standardising data catalogues of open data portals. The method aims at merging different regional and local catalogues – currently including the Open Data projects of the « Conseil général de la Gironde et de la Région Aquitaine”, and the cities of Montpellier, Nantes and Paris - following the DCAT (Data Catalog Vocabulary) specification. DCAT is a metadata vocabulary to describe datasets in data catalogues.
The ultimate goal of the ‘Collectif Open Data France‘ project is to create a catalogue of datasets that takes stock of all datasets. Standardising the way datasets are described (using DCAT) will increase their discoverability, enable applications easily to consume metadata from multiple catalogues and utlimately facilitate interoperability between data catalogues.
DCAT is for datasets what ADMS (Asset Description Metadata Schema) is for semantic standards. ADMS is a standardised metadata vocabulary created by the ISA Programme of the European Commission to help publishers of standards (Public Administrations, Standardisation Bodies, Third Parties) harmonise the way they describe their standards and make them searchable through catalogues such as Joinup, XRepository, Digitalisér.dk, etc.
While Collectif Open Data France aims at bringing together stakeholders involved in sharing Public Open Data in France, the ISA Programme (via ADMS) wants to federate stakeholders involved in sharing interoperability assets (data models, code lists, ontologies) in Europe. Both initiative will increase the visibility of targeted assets on the web, encourage reuse and improve semantic interoperability.
To know more
- http://opendatafrance.net/les-ateliers/atelier-3-dataset-des-datasets/
- http://lemag.lacantine-rennes.net/2012/06/lopen-data-des-territoires-se-regroupe-et-se-normalise-743 (Original article - French)
- http://www.opendataweek.org/?page_id=144
- http://www.etalab.gouv.fr/
- https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms/home