Improved Data Policies and Administration (FR0034)

Appoint ministerial data administrators and support the implementation of the “open by default” principle
Lead institution(s):
Minister of State for the Digital Sector, attached to the Prime Minister
Other stakeholders:
All ministries
Commitment building on: commitment no. 11 Co-produce with civil society the data infrastructure essential to society and economy; commitment no. 12 Further expand the opening of legal resources & the collaboration with civil society on opening the law and commitment no. 15 Strengthen government policy on the opening and circulation of data of the NAP for 2015-2017
OGP principles with which the commitment is associated:
Access to information, accountability, innovation and technology for openness
Challenges
Public data can be leveraged for improving the running of government departments, enhancing transparency in public action and boosting the economic sector.
To step up the momentum already under way and recognised at international level in terms of opening up and harnessing data, all of the ministries across the board now need to get involved in putting data policy well and truly into practice. This data policy must combine open data with the personal data protection requirements, in compliance with the French Code on Relations between the Public and the Administration and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Ambitions
Appoint a ministerial data administrator within each ministry: s/he will be tasked with coordinating data policy, within his/her ministry, in liaison with the Secretariat General: inventory of existing data and data in use (mapping), identification of reference data coming within the ministry's purview, data movement (API strategy, participation in the national policy to open up public data, protection of personal data, data anonymisation or pseudonymisation projects), data use for the ministry's specific needs (particularly through data science and artificial intelligence).
Oversee the network of ministerial data administrators: the general data administrator will be tasked with overseeing this network to make it easier to share experiences and pool interministerial resources (setup of API, data sharing platforms, anonymisation and so on).
Support the implementation of the open by default principle: so as to help government departments to honour the legal obligations enshrined in the Digital Republic Act (including the open by default principle), a series of resources (practical guide, training for officials) will be produced in conjunction with the network of ministerial data administrators and re-users.
The road map in detail

Appoint a ministerial data administrator within each ministry Semester 1 and 2 2018
Oversee the network of ministerial data administrators (together with the general data administrator at the Interministerial Department of the Government’s Digital, Information and Communication Systems (DINSIC) Semester 1 and 2 2018
Support government departments and bolster dialogue on opening up public data:
Publish an educational practical guide on opening up public data, which particularly gives a reminder
of the new legal framework (Digital Republic Act, GDPR)
Offer training to officials
Involve data re-users in drawing up future open data policies
(through hackathons, consultations or training for example) Ongoing
•Assess the impact of opening up public data:
Organise a study day for understanding the impacts of
opening up public data
Develop tools (indicators, data science, etc.) for measuring
the impact that instruments opening up public data have on
the economy, democratic life and other areas
Set up an international working group on the impact of
opening up public data for discussing feedbacks from other countries Ongoing
f State for the Digital Sector, attached to the Prime Minister

5. Appoint ministerial data administrators and support the implementation of the “open by default” principle

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

Public data can be leveraged for improving the running of government departments, enhancing transparency in public action and boosting the economic sector.

To step up the momentum already under way and recognised at international level in terms of opening up and harnessing data, all of the ministries across the board now need to get involved in putting data policy well and truly into practice. This data policy must combine open data with the personal data protection requirements, in compliance with the French Code on Relations between the Public and the Administration and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Appoint a ministerial data administrator within each ministry: s/he will be tasked with coordinating data policy, within his/her ministry, in liaison with the Secretariat General: inventory of existing data and data in use (mapping), identification of reference data coming within the ministry's purview, data movement (API strategy, participation in the national policy to open up public data, protection of personal data, data anonymisation or pseudonymisation projects), data use for the ministry's specific needs (particularly through data science and artificial intelligence).

Oversee the network of ministerial data administrators: the general data administrator will be tasked with overseeing this network to make it easier to share experiences and pool interministerial resources (setup of API, data sharing platforms, anonymisation and so on).

Support the implementation of the open by default principle: so as to help government departments to honour the legal obligations enshrined in the Digital Republic Act (including the open by default principle), a series of resources (practical guide, training for officials) will be produced in conjunction with the network of ministerial data administrators and re-users. [22]

Milestones

5.1 Appoint a ministerial data administrator within each ministry

5.2 Oversee the network of ministerial data administrators (together with the general data administrator at the Interministerial Department of the Government’s Digital, Information and Communication Systems (DINSIC)

5.3 Support government departments and bolster dialogue on opening up public data:

• Publish an educational practical guide on opening up public data, which particularly gives a reminder

  of the new legal framework (Digital Republic Act, GDPR)

• Offer training to officials
• Involve data re-users in drawing up future open data policies (through hackathons, consultations or training for example)

5.4 Assess the impact of opening up public data:

• Organise a study day for understanding the impacts of opening up public data
• Develop tools (indicators, data science, etc.) for measuring the impact that instruments opening up public data have on the economy, democratic life and other areas
• Set up an international working group on the impact of opening up public data for discussing feedbacks from other countries

Start Date: 2018

End Date: 2020

Context and Objectives

The IRM end-of-term report for France’s 2015–2017 action plan noted that “the awareness and interest for open data and open government is not equal across ministries. Etalab still lacks sufficient leverage to centralise and spread information in an efficient manner and stakeholders recognised that . . . awareness and uptake remain anecdotal . . . [and that there is a] general lack of high-level support for the topic overall as well as for the activities of the open data correspondents in each ministry.” [23] The Interministerial Department of the government’s Digital, Information and Communication systems (DINSIC) holds responsibility for assisting ministries and agencies in their open data efforts. The DINSIC manages the public open data system. It organizes bimonthly interministerial coordination meetings and holds regular “open data sprints” to identify high-impact datasets together with each ministry. The DINSIC organizes meetings with all the data administrators every three to four months to exchange good practices and challenges. It also hosts regular thematic workshops. [24]

The government decided to address the lack of internal knowledge and concern for open data in the new action plan by appointing dedicated data administrators in each ministry. It had appointed eight at the end of 2017. [25] In this context, the commitment aimed to create a network of data administrators to facilitate the circulation of data and knowledge and facilitate implementation of the principle of open data by default through guides and trainings. The administrator also held responsibility for evaluating the impact of open data. Several ministries made separate commitments that concern their own organizations and data, specifying how they intended to facilitate a culture of open data.

The text is specific enough for the commitment to be verifiable. The second milestone concerning the network of administrators however does not indicate what is meant about the management of the network, nor about whom the responsibility falls on.

This initiative has a minor potential impact for better data governance and quality. This commitment aims primarily to improve the governance and management of public data within the administration. However, based on interviews, the IRM researcher notes that the commitment might lead to an improvement in the open data infrastructure in the long run, and in the quality of information disclosed to the public. Therefore, the commitment is relevant to the OGP value of access to information. It has potential even though it does not require the disclosure of any new data or information on its own. It is also relevant to civic participation, as one of the milestones calls for involving data users in the development of future open data policies.

The text is specific enough for the commitment to be verifiable. The second milestone concerning the network of administrators however does not indicate what is meant about the management of the network, nor about whom the responsibility falls on.

This initiative has a minor potential impact for better data governance and quality. There is currently a lack of awareness and competence about open data within the administration. However, the commitment is entirely centered the internal functioning of the administration and does not require any new information to be made accessible.

Next steps

The IRM researcher recommends that the commitment not be carried forward into the next action plan. The government could instead:

• Publish information about the interministerial coordination of the open data policy;
• Clarify the objectives of and notify the public regarding the various coordination meetings (e.g., bimonthly COPIL (comité de pilotage), meeting of data administrators held each trimester);
• Clarify the status of the additional ministry-specific commitments related to the main commitments;
• Merge commitments that concern the support given to government agencies and local governments to clarify needs, responsibilities, and strategy; and
• Initiate a campaign to raise the awareness of the broader public about open data to stimulate interest beyond the relatively narrow existing community and make the commitment less inward-facing.

5. Appoint ministerial data administrators and support the implementation of the “open by default” principle

Completion: Substantial

The government has appointed ministerial data administrators in 12 out of 16 ministries (eight of these positions had already been created before the action plan). [xxvii] The DINUM is in charge of the coordination of this network of administrators who meets once per trimester. Etalab published a guide and organized four hackathons to help public administrations open and better circulate data. [xxviii] The feedback from participants for the #datafinevent indicated that despite the event being well-organized, there could have been more citizens and data scientists present. [xxix] There is no evidence of the creation of an international working group and the work on the assessment of the impact of open data has not yet started according to the government’s self-assessment. [xxx]