Organizing an ill-defined public policy domain through a data standard

This article examines the development of a French data standard defining, in a normalized way, the fields and values describing the loci of digital mediation. The aim of this project was to facilitate the census of these places, to gain a better understanding of the digital mediation offer on a national scale. The article is based on a year’s embedded research, where we accompanied the design of the standard, collaborating with data producers and users. We highlight the invisible work that goes on before data standardization and examine the participatory issues raised by this type of approach. The creation of a standard, we argue, is a sensitive step in organizing an ill-defined sector of public action; it redefines the sector through compromises between the players concerned in arenas that are less visible and less subject to the procedural imperatives of consultation.