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Opening up public data in France: where do we stand?

Published on 29 March 2019
Update on 26 September 2022
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Summary

The year 2018 marked a new stage in the opening of public data. It was in October 2018 that a series of provisions provided for in the Digital Republic law came into force: first, the opening by default" of data from local authorities with more than 3,500 inhabitants. The government also made public, in April 2018, France's second Action Plan "for transparent and collaborative public action" as part of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The Prime Minister announced, on March 4, 2019, that free public data will be "complete by 2022."

France ranks 3rd in Europe for the opening of public data

The comparative study commissioned by the European Commission on the maturity of open data in the various Member States (Open Data Maturity in Europe 2018), places France in third place (with a maturity evaluated at 83%), after Ireland (88%) and Spain (87%).

Countries were evaluated along four dimensions: policy and legislation, data portal, impact of openness and data quality. Based on the scores obtained in the four dimensions, the report ranks France (along with four other countries) in the group of "trendsetters".

In terms of data quality, France scores 76% for a European average of 62%, due to the automation of data publication and collection (75% of data is published automatically) and especially the effectiveness and regularity of data and metadata updates.

data.gouv.fr is among the best in Europe in terms of facilitating interaction between publishers and reusers and, above all, in terms of analytically monitoring the activity and traffic of the latter on the platform.

Doubling of the number of pages viewed on data.gouv.fr

The audience of Data.gouv.fr the national open data platform data.gouv.fr is steadily increasing.
  • In one year, the number of visits has grown by 32% (from 2.7 to 3.5 million visits) while the number of page views has almost doubled.
  • The platform now has more than 35,000 datasets and 191,682 resources opened by over 2,200 organizations.
  • The essential data of the public order, which represents 15% of the GDP, are now standardized and published on data.gouv.fr.
  • Administrations are the first users of open data. 30% of the uses of data.gouv.fr come from administrations.
The major fact is the implementation of the "public data service", which translates, in particular, into the deployment of programming interfaces. These APIs, gathered on the api.gouv.fr platform, allow companies and administrations to freely reuse essential data such as the company and establishment registration system (Sirene) or the cadastral map, which were previously only accessible to a handful of companies. The National Address Base (BAN) and its geocoding API thus made it possible to process 1.8 billion requests in 2018 (+60% compared to 2017).

Etalab has just published the first paper edition of the catalog of public data. More than 900 pages gathering the essential of the datasets, without forgetting an index of more than 40 pages which will be very appreciated to find quickly a dataset.

512 local actors publish data in open data

According to OpenDataFrance, as of March 6, 2019, 512 local actors are publishing data in open data, including 383 local authorities concerned by the obligation to open their data (authorities with at least 3,500 inhabitants and 50 agents). They were only 257 in January 2018
  • The opening concerns, in the first place, metropolises and large cities and regions of metropolitan France.
  • There are still major geographical disparities. The historical players in Brittany and Provence Alpes-Côte d'Azur are now very active in this field and are bringing many local authorities on board.
Of the 81 platforms identified in January 2018, 41% offered data available only for download, 59% allowed for browsing, and 53% offered APIs that provided access to metadata or even datasets directly.

Open Government Action Plan: an ever more active opening of data

As part of the National Action Plan for Transparent and Collaborative Public Action for 2018-2020, the government has made public a series of commitments for "an ever more active opening of data with the enrichment of the public data service and in particular the identification of a new list of reference data". This plan includes a total of 21 commitments made by 13 ministries, 3 government agencies, the Cour des Comptes and the Haute Autorité pour la transparence de la vie publique (HATVP). This action plan provides, in particular, for :
  • Develop "verticals" (sectoral data, APIs, openlabs and dedicated community management...) according to themes (e.g.: transport, energy...) in connection with the data.gouv.fr platform
  • Improve the quality of the data on data.gouv.fr and link them together (enrich the metadata)
  • Allow citizens or companies to request data openings
  • Designate a departmental data administrator within each department
  • Publish a practical guide to open public data, including a reminder of the new legal framework (Digital Republic Act, RGPD)
  • Involve data reusers in the development of future open data policies (hackathons, consultations, training, etc.)
  • Develop tools (indicators, datasciences...) to measure the impact of open public data on the economy, democratic life...
  • Work with the community to identify 2-3 high impact datasets per department
  • Enrich the "public data service" (PDS) with new databases, by animating a governance of the PDS
  • Define a timeline for opening these datasets

Announced opening of a series of data sets

The action plan also includes commitments made by several departments:
  • The Ministry of the Interior will publish the data relating to the global operating grant
  • The Ministry of Ecological Transition and Solidarity and the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion are committed to creating an access point to access the hydrometric database for flood forecasting and information, to developing APIS for the RPLS (Directory of Social Rental Stock), Sitadel (building permits) Energy (local energy data), to create a national access point to transport data for multimodal information and ticketing, to facilitate the control of energy consumption and expenditure through a national data access point (including crowdsourcing of oil supply data and prices);
  • The Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs plans to publish statistical data from consular applications serving French populations abroad as well as anonymized data from the application for managing foreign student applications.
  • The Ministry of Education plans to open and publish new datasets on school education topics, to open spaces dedicated to Open Data to the academic regions on the ministerial platform, to support the operators of the National Education in opening their data
  • The Ministry of Agriculture and Food plans to publish georeferenced data on the delimitations of controlled designations of origin and protected geographical indications, to develop a new information system on organic agriculture allowing the geolocation of the areas cultivated organically.
  • The Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation is committed to increasing the availability of aggregated micro-data sets on the main milestones of higher education: post-bac orientation, success and professional integration, and to opening a set of data sets on the financial situation of higher education institutions and on the built and non-built assets of higher education and research institutions.

Parliamentary data: the National Assembly's action plan

In the action plan " Openness, transparency and citizen participation " that it has made public in the framework of the Open Government Partnership, the National Assembly plans to publish on the website of the National Assembly and in open data new information necessary for the knowledge and transparency of parliamentary life. "For some of this information, it is already published on the website, but not in open data (e.g., the list of deputies' staff). The evolution will then consist in publishing the information in an open format.The roadmap foresees in particular, the publication, in open data
  • The Budgetary and Financial Regulations of the Assembly The Regulations of the Pension Fund of the Members of the Assembly
  • The minutes of the meetings of the Bureau, the Conference of Presidents and the College of Quaestors
  • Telephone numbers of MPs' offices (on a voluntary basis)
  • And more specific information on the budget of the National Assembly
The Assembly, moreover, provides, subject to compliance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act, to publish :
  • the list of persons interviewed by the rapporteurs ;
  • the list of entrances of interest representatives to the Assembly;
  • the list of MPs' staff ;
  • the international activities of the Assembly (missions abroad) ;
  • the indication of a formal vote by delegation

The winners of the Trophées de l'open data pour les territoires

The third Open Data Awards for territories, organized by the association Open data France and the Gazette were awarded on November 15, in Paris. Six winners were distinguished for their initiatives to open up public data.
  • " New open data initiative 2018" CARENE Saint-Nazaire Agglomeration and Cap Atlantique. These two intercommunalities (and 25 municipalities) have designed a joint approach to establish territorial consistency in the data published.
  • "Open data mediation project" : Digne les Bains (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) for the Data'Digne project, aimed at high school students, to "teach open data".
  • " Strategic approach to open data" : the Haute-Garonne departmental council for its strategy to support the opening of the department's local authority data
  • " Local animation approach around open data" : Région Sud - Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur, for the "DataSud" project, a cooperation approach between the region and the regional center for geographic information (CRIGE), to propose a new version of the regional data platform.
  • "Best open data reuse project" : the city of Roubaix for the project "Open data to enhance the activities of the media library La Grande Plage".
  • "Jury Prize: Nantes Métropole, Loire-Atlantique department and Pays de la Loire region for their project "Collectivités, ouvrez vos données!

Generalization of free data by 2022

The Cour des Comptes had called on the government to clarify the State's doctrine on data, as well as the conditions of application of the rules on open data. In a letter to the First President of the Cour des Comptes, the Prime Minister announced, on March 4, that the free reuse of data would be generalized, at the latest in 202.

"The decision to make data free of charge by 2022 will effectively simplify the issue of the use of licenses insofar as it will make it possible to get rid of the existing dual licenses (paying or free with an obligation to share), thus facilitating the transition to an open license. Specific licenses, which restrict the possibilities of re-use of data, should only be used in very exceptional cases and duly justified.

On this occasion, he asked the General Inspectorate of Finance to draw up, within six months, an initial assessment of the implementation of open data and its impacts, the difficulties encountered by the ministries and their operators, and to propose appropriate support measures.

Références :

Sources

Opening up public data in France: where do we stand?

The year 2018 marked a new stage in the opening of public data. It was in October 2018 that a series of provisions provided for in the Digital Republic law came into force: first, the opening by default" of data from local authorities with more than 3,500 inhabitants. The government also made public, in April 2018, France's second Action Plan "for transparent and collaborative public action" as part of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The Prime Minister announced, on March 4, 2019, that free public data will be "complete by 2022."

France ranks 3rd in Europe for the opening of public data

The comparative study commissioned by the European Commission on the maturity of open data in the various Member States (Open Data Maturity in Europe 2018), places France in third place (with a maturity evaluated at 83%), after Ireland (88%) and Spain (87%).

Countries were evaluated along four dimensions: policy and legislation, data portal, impact of openness and data quality. Based on the scores obtained in the four dimensions, the report ranks France (along with four other countries) in the group of "trendsetters".

In terms of data quality, France scores 76% for a European average of 62%, due to the automation of data publication and collection (75% of data is published automatically) and especially the effectiveness and regularity of data and metadata updates.

data.gouv.fr is among the best in Europe in terms of facilitating interaction between publishers and reusers and, above all, in terms of analytically monitoring the activity and traffic of the latter on the platform.

Doubling of the number of pages viewed on data.gouv.fr

The audience of Data.gouv.fr the national open data platform data.gouv.fr is steadily increasing.
  • In one year, the number of visits has grown by 32% (from 2.7 to 3.5 million visits) while the number of page views has almost doubled.
  • The platform now has more than 35,000 datasets and 191,682 resources opened by over 2,200 organizations.
  • The essential data of the public order, which represents 15% of the GDP, are now standardized and published on data.gouv.fr.
  • Administrations are the first users of open data. 30% of the uses of data.gouv.fr come from administrations.
The major fact is the implementation of the "public data service", which translates, in particular, into the deployment of programming interfaces. These APIs, gathered on the api.gouv.fr platform, allow companies and administrations to freely reuse essential data such as the company and establishment registration system (Sirene) or the cadastral map, which were previously only accessible to a handful of companies. The National Address Base (BAN) and its geocoding API thus made it possible to process 1.8 billion requests in 2018 (+60% compared to 2017).

Etalab has just published the first paper edition of the catalog of public data. More than 900 pages gathering the essential of the datasets, without forgetting an index of more than 40 pages which will be very appreciated to find quickly a dataset.

512 local actors publish data in open data

According to OpenDataFrance, as of March 6, 2019, 512 local actors are publishing data in open data, including 383 local authorities concerned by the obligation to open their data (authorities with at least 3,500 inhabitants and 50 agents). They were only 257 in January 2018
  • The opening concerns, in the first place, metropolises and large cities and regions of metropolitan France.
  • There are still major geographical disparities. The historical players in Brittany and Provence Alpes-Côte d'Azur are now very active in this field and are bringing many local authorities on board.
Of the 81 platforms identified in January 2018, 41% offered data available only for download, 59% allowed for browsing, and 53% offered APIs that provided access to metadata or even datasets directly.

Open Government Action Plan: an ever more active opening of data

As part of the National Action Plan for Transparent and Collaborative Public Action for 2018-2020, the government has made public a series of commitments for "an ever more active opening of data with the enrichment of the public data service and in particular the identification of a new list of reference data". This plan includes a total of 21 commitments made by 13 ministries, 3 government agencies, the Cour des Comptes and the Haute Autorité pour la transparence de la vie publique (HATVP). This action plan provides, in particular, for :
  • Develop "verticals" (sectoral data, APIs, openlabs and dedicated community management...) according to themes (e.g.: transport, energy...) in connection with the data.gouv.fr platform
  • Improve the quality of the data on data.gouv.fr and link them together (enrich the metadata)
  • Allow citizens or companies to request data openings
  • Designate a departmental data administrator within each department
  • Publish a practical guide to open public data, including a reminder of the new legal framework (Digital Republic Act, RGPD)
  • Involve data reusers in the development of future open data policies (hackathons, consultations, training, etc.)
  • Develop tools (indicators, datasciences...) to measure the impact of open public data on the economy, democratic life...
  • Work with the community to identify 2-3 high impact datasets per department
  • Enrich the "public data service" (PDS) with new databases, by animating a governance of the PDS
  • Define a timeline for opening these datasets

Announced opening of a series of data sets

The action plan also includes commitments made by several departments:
  • The Ministry of the Interior will publish the data relating to the global operating grant
  • The Ministry of Ecological Transition and Solidarity and the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion are committed to creating an access point to access the hydrometric database for flood forecasting and information, to developing APIS for the RPLS (Directory of Social Rental Stock), Sitadel (building permits) Energy (local energy data), to create a national access point to transport data for multimodal information and ticketing, to facilitate the control of energy consumption and expenditure through a national data access point (including crowdsourcing of oil supply data and prices);
  • The Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs plans to publish statistical data from consular applications serving French populations abroad as well as anonymized data from the application for managing foreign student applications.
  • The Ministry of Education plans to open and publish new datasets on school education topics, to open spaces dedicated to Open Data to the academic regions on the ministerial platform, to support the operators of the National Education in opening their data
  • The Ministry of Agriculture and Food plans to publish georeferenced data on the delimitations of controlled designations of origin and protected geographical indications, to develop a new information system on organic agriculture allowing the geolocation of the areas cultivated organically.
  • The Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation is committed to increasing the availability of aggregated micro-data sets on the main milestones of higher education: post-bac orientation, success and professional integration, and to opening a set of data sets on the financial situation of higher education institutions and on the built and non-built assets of higher education and research institutions.

Parliamentary data: the National Assembly's action plan

In the action plan " Openness, transparency and citizen participation " that it has made public in the framework of the Open Government Partnership, the National Assembly plans to publish on the website of the National Assembly and in open data new information necessary for the knowledge and transparency of parliamentary life. "For some of this information, it is already published on the website, but not in open data (e.g., the list of deputies' staff). The evolution will then consist in publishing the information in an open format.The roadmap foresees in particular, the publication, in open data
  • The Budgetary and Financial Regulations of the Assembly The Regulations of the Pension Fund of the Members of the Assembly
  • The minutes of the meetings of the Bureau, the Conference of Presidents and the College of Quaestors
  • Telephone numbers of MPs' offices (on a voluntary basis)
  • And more specific information on the budget of the National Assembly
The Assembly, moreover, provides, subject to compliance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act, to publish :
  • the list of persons interviewed by the rapporteurs ;
  • the list of entrances of interest representatives to the Assembly;
  • the list of MPs' staff ;
  • the international activities of the Assembly (missions abroad) ;
  • the indication of a formal vote by delegation

The winners of the Trophées de l'open data pour les territoires

The third Open Data Awards for territories, organized by the association Open data France and the Gazette were awarded on November 15, in Paris. Six winners were distinguished for their initiatives to open up public data.
  • " New open data initiative 2018" CARENE Saint-Nazaire Agglomeration and Cap Atlantique. These two intercommunalities (and 25 municipalities) have designed a joint approach to establish territorial consistency in the data published.
  • "Open data mediation project" : Digne les Bains (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) for the Data'Digne project, aimed at high school students, to "teach open data".
  • " Strategic approach to open data" : the Haute-Garonne departmental council for its strategy to support the opening of the department's local authority data
  • " Local animation approach around open data" : Région Sud - Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur, for the "DataSud" project, a cooperation approach between the region and the regional center for geographic information (CRIGE), to propose a new version of the regional data platform.
  • "Best open data reuse project" : the city of Roubaix for the project "Open data to enhance the activities of the media library La Grande Plage".
  • "Jury Prize: Nantes Métropole, Loire-Atlantique department and Pays de la Loire region for their project "Collectivités, ouvrez vos données!

Generalization of free data by 2022

The Cour des Comptes had called on the government to clarify the State's doctrine on data, as well as the conditions of application of the rules on open data. In a letter to the First President of the Cour des Comptes, the Prime Minister announced, on March 4, that the free reuse of data would be generalized, at the latest in 202.

"The decision to make data free of charge by 2022 will effectively simplify the issue of the use of licenses insofar as it will make it possible to get rid of the existing dual licenses (paying or free with an obligation to share), thus facilitating the transition to an open license. Specific licenses, which restrict the possibilities of re-use of data, should only be used in very exceptional cases and duly justified.

On this occasion, he asked the General Inspectorate of Finance to draw up, within six months, an initial assessment of the implementation of open data and its impacts, the difficulties encountered by the ministries and their operators, and to propose appropriate support measures.

Références :

Sources

Labo Société Numérique

Labo République Française Agence nationale de cohésion des territoires
Opening up public data in France: where do we stand?