1. Country update : France
IMAODBC The Hague - September 2005

2. Achievements / 1 : France in facts and figures: a thematic statistical encyclopedia
13 themes, each theme proposing three types of information
key data
broken down into 50 sub-themes and 500 pages dedicated to precise topics
on each page : essential data and, for further information, links to analyses and definitions
the pages are updated source by source
detailed data
downloadable files of detailed data and links to on line databases
studies and analyses
all the articles published by Insee related to the theme

3. Achievements / 2 : going further to on line dissemination … and free information
printed publications
the last series of publications which were only available on paper are now also on
five series among ten are disseminated only on line from this year on
shifting from CD-ROM to internet
surveys microdata are now downloadable from the institute’s site, when anonymization is technically feasible
statistical classifications can be consulted on, or downloaded from the site
as a consequence two series of CD-ROMs among three have been suppressed

4. Achievements / 3 : completing information on methodology
an important part of the site has been dedicated to methodology
this year two sub-headings have been completed :
a dictionnary of statistical terms
standard statistical classifications
a new sub-heading has been dedicated to the methodology of the sources managed by Insee
for each source are available a description and a summing up of its methodology
a set of more detailed and more or less specialised notes on the subject
only a few sources are described for the moment

5. In progress :
shifting completely to on line – and free - dissemination :
at the beginning of 2006 a new sub-site will give access to a local areas statistics database (cf session papers)
the last CD-ROMs will be replaced by the possibility of downloading the same files from
towards a new user interface
users judge Insee’s site pretty rich, but underline the complexity of navigation and weakness of searching tools
for this reason a project of complete reengineering of the user interface has been launched
the disclosure of this new site is planned for 2007