The document discusses the French government's strong support for open data, including its participation in international initiatives and the launch of the data.gouv.fr portal. It outlines the benefits and challenges of the INSPIRE directive for spatial data infrastructure and emphasizes the need for interoperability and effective funding for public data producers. Ultimately, open data is seen as a valuable opportunity to enhance public services, although the financial sustainability and long-term management of such data remains a critical concern.

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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.