01.06.2021
Building Public Algorithm Registers: Lessons Learned from the French Approach
« (…) A Collaborative Approach
In France, the Digital Republic Law mandates transparency of public algorithms. Among other obligations, it compels public agencies to publicly list the main decision-making algorithmic tools and to publish their rules. However, in practice, agencies struggle to comply with this obligation, in part due to a lack of guidance about how to inventory algorithms, what information to include, and how to present it.
In the summer of 2020, Etalab, the French government’s taskforce for data policy, launched a working group with public servants from central (the Ministry of Education and the Customs Department) and local governments (namely the cities of Antibes and Lyon) to explore this topic. Selected on a voluntary basis, every public servant had transparency and open government at heart and was at a different stage of building an algorithmic register in their agency, from exploration to near-implementation.
The goal was to create a community of practice and to produce public practical guidance around registers. The group met regularly until December 2020, sharing progress, hurdles and feedback. (…) »
source > opengovpartnership.org, Soizic Pénicaud, 12 mai 2021
