Regards Citoyens

Description

Regards Citoyens is a French non-profit association, governed by the 1901 law. It was formed by a group of volunteer citizens who met online. They wanted to make the workings of France’s democratic institutions more accessible using public information.

The collective began informally in July 2009, founded by four citizens. It formally became an association in June 2010. It now counts around forty volunteer members, including four board administrators, of varying ages and from different regions.

The association builds and runs a family of websites that track and republish public data on French institutions. NosDeputes.fr and NosSenateurs.fr monitor the activity of members of the National Assembly and the Senate using official public sources. NosDonnees.fr is a portal for open public data, NosFinancesLocales.fr covers local government finances, and LaFabriqueDeLaLoi.fr covers the lawmaking process. It also runs Elections.RegardsCitoyens.org. It makes these datasets and its software available under open licences such as Creative Commons and ODBL.

Regards Citoyens states it is independent of Parliament and does not serve as a channel for contacting parliamentarians directly. For transparency, it publishes its administrators’ declarations of interest and its running accounts online, updated daily on GitHub. Its sites are hosted commercially by two providers based in Paris.