Open Knowledge France

Description

Open Knowledge France is a French association that promotes open data and open access to public information. It is linked to the international Open Knowledge movement, founded by Rufus Pollock.

Its main project is Madada.fr, an online platform launched in 2019 that helps citizens request administrative documents from French public authorities. It relies on a 1978 French law giving everyone the right to obtain records held by public bodies. The platform holds contact details for more than 50,000 authorities and handled over 200 requests in its first year, with dozens resolved successfully. It is comparable to WhatDoTheyKnow in the United Kingdom and AskTheEU for European Union institutions.

The association also organizes citizen workshops on open data, held in Paris in partnership with the city, covering topics such as civic data infrastructure and participatory budgets. It has partnered with the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs to develop a mobile application using open data to help identify endangered species and their legal protection status.