Quelques leçons apprises sur les relations entre données ouvertes et données géographiques. Some lessons learn about relationship between open data and spatial data.

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Marc Leobet
Spatial Data Office
Directorate of Research and Innovation
Department of the Commissioner-General for Sustainable Development
Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy
Open Data and Public Services for Everybody,
and some drawbacks

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Open data in France in a word
• Open data is strongly supported by the French Government.
• Two weeks ago, France joins the OpenGovPartnership;
• In 2013, France was actively involved in G8's open data charter;
• 2011 : data.gouv.fr portal launched, after some municipalities (Rennes, Paris...).
• in 1997, Government ’s agenda for the information society;
• since 1998, our ministry disseminates free environmental data on internet.
• Old roots :
– In 1791, the French Revolution requires, in its Declaration of Human Rights (art.
14) :
“Everybody has the right to request account to every public agent of his administration.”

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INSPIRE in a word
• INSPIRE is an European law, adopted in 2007
• It establishes a legal framework for a Spatial data infrastructure
• Through the web
• With regulations for metadata, web services and data models,
coordination and data sharing
– To bring interoperability through web services, semantic and
data models
• But no impact on the business model
• Just in France, thousands of data producers (public authorities)

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Main benefits
INSPIRE is designed to solve these problems
between public authorities :
• "How to know where are the external data that I
need?
• How to manage confidentiality (real or
imaginary)?
• How to solve the problem of agreements that take
too long time?
• How to know the quality of data (mine and
others)? “

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The link open data/INSPIRE
• 80% of public data have a reference to a specific
location.
– Most of the time, ressources are common
• The French Government has decided to open all (state)
public data,
– so spatial datasets under State supervision will become
open and free.
• In 2012, 98,8% of French spatial datasets published in
INSPIRE framework were open;
– At national and local level, for most of producers,
spatial data <=> open data.

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The road to INSPIRE is
sometimes harsh
• The rules in INSPIRE are often said too complex, and they
are,
• Open data forces us to be more open to IT solutions from
others sectors than GI
• And to be costly, and they are too!
• But how to reach interoperability in quality description, web
services and data models without a tight framework ?
• How to reach a huge Return on invesment without to invest ?

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And the road to Open data
is not only soft
1. To create value, users need interoperability;
– Open data bets on standards;
– After years of experience in data sharing, and for massive
data sharing,
– INSPIRE regulations are the mark of the failure of
voluntary interoperability
2. « where are my customers » : how to defend funding ?
• If your are a public data producer,
• and if data is open and free,
• in a shrinking budget context,
 how to explain to policy makers that you add value and need
money to keep an industrial tool efficient?

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Conclusion
• Open data is a great opportunity to create value and
services;
• It is a sting to force the public services to be more
efficient, more adapted to citizens needs;
• Open data is not a risk, it is the trend, and force to be
more responsable;
• But we need to protect long term needs and to keep
reference or authority data comparable through
decades;
• Someone has to pay for. How? The answer will be
crucial for GI sector.