Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information

Today, David Rhind, Peter Wienand, Michael Nicholson, and Keith Dugmore met a group of officials from the French government including:

• Mr Alain Bodon, Inspecteur général des finances,
• Mr Maurice Sportiche, from the General Council for Industry, Energy and technology
• Mr Patrice Platel, from the Secrétariat général du gouvernement (that’s the French “Cabinet Office”)
• Miss Maud Iacomelli, policy officer at the French Embassy
• Mr Benoit Chevalier, Economic Counsellor of the Ambassador.

The purpose of the meeting was to find out about APPSI’s role and the UK’s key issues relating to the re-use of public sector information (PSI) as they are taking forward the French National Plan for Digital Economy, “France Digital 2012”, announced by the government last October, which will require policies to be put in place to enable greater access and re-use of PSI. The group was very much in listening mode and appeared interested to hear the different perspectives from the private and public sectors, issues emerging from the pricing of psi re-use in the UK, and how APPSI’s composition has helped to drive the information agenda forward. Tomorrow, this group will meet with officials from the Office of Public Sector Information.