Governance of territorial platforms

With more than 250 territorial data publication platforms, the open data landscape is still quite dispersed, although the growth in the number of platforms is not keeping pace with that of local authorities. This means that the trend towards mutualization is growing, even if it is still insufficient.

The majority of local authorities choose to publish their data themselves or with another local authority (e.g., a municipality and an intermunicipality) in 72% of cases. While we can understand the reasons why a local authority chooses to operate its own portal (technical autonomy, speed of implementation, adapted and covered functional needs, budgetary constraints, political visibility and editorial line), the choice of a portal attached to a local authority raises the question of its referencing and the discoverability of data. The underlying technology of the platform also generates operational conditions for reuse that can vary greatly from one local authority to another (e.g., metadata or the way an API is called), which makes it more difficult to exploit and reuse the data. However, nearly a quarter of the platforms are shared at the territorial level, with or without a partnership with government services. This approach is by far the most virtuous in terms of reuse (F.A.I.R.), it progresses over time and characterizes the slow structuring of territories. It is generally the positioning of high-level authorities (region, department, metropolis or IT Mutualization Structure) as "Territorial Data Animator" proposing a mutualized offer of data hosting on a territorial scale.