Gandi supports Ma Dada

French citizens have the right—thanks to the CADA (Commission d’accès aux documents administratifs – “Commission for Access to Administrative Documents”) passed on July 17, 1978—to request public information from French administrations. The process for doing so, however, is fairly complex. Ma Dada has a mission: to facilitate access to these data.

Ma Dada is a project aimed at facilitating CADA requests in France. The CADA law requires French government agencies to provide all public information regarding the managers, finances, etc. of any public project. Obviously, each request is complex. This organization helps make this easy and accesible.

Who is Ma Dada?

Ma Dada is an organization that put a platform online that allows citizens and internet users to request access to data stored by French government agencies. These public authorities, like municipal authorities, public ministries, cabinets, social housing authorities are obligated by CADA to make information about the managers and finances of public projects publicly available. The organization, then, helps French people enjoy this right.

Through a search engine on their website you can find the public authority that interests you and check requests that have already been made or that are in progress. An online form then lets you edit your request.

For example, it’s possible to request to see the Administrative Accounts of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region from the Regional Council in order to make them public and to allow citizens to view the data related to budgetary documents such as administrative accounts, initial budgets, supplementary budgets, and amendments made.

MaDada works thanks to the Open Source software Alaveteli, created and managed by mySociety, a project of the organization UK Citizens Online Democracy.   

Gandi supports Ma dada

The “Gandi Supports” program lets us work hand-in-hand with organizations, NGOs, or business initiatives whose values align with Gandi’s. We primarily support ecological organizations and those supporting animal and human rights, as well as those who want to build a better digital world.

Ma Dada is a project focused on government transparency and citizen engagement. And because Gandi believes strongly in this civic spirit of transparency and accountability, we made the choice to support Ma Dada by supplying Cloud hosting infrastructure where they could develop their project.

You can follow along with the latest updates from Ma Dada (in French) on their blog.

And if you want to support the work that Ma Dada does, you too can contribute by making a donation.