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This paper aims to study speeches and practices concerning the provision of the public information. We study the way public data-related policies were established and consider more specifically the issues linked to data distribution and reuse. This perspective will focus on the analysis of two corpora: a corpus made of French legislative texts that have been published since 1978 and a corpus made of regional “open data” websites. Our main hypothesis is that there is a “detachment” (Ricoeur, on 1986) of public information from the institution by the act of providing access to its distribution. We underline two processes which are the conditions of this “detachment.” Therefore, our study is organized around the two challenges linked to open-data development. The first challenge (and our first part) is the imposition of the mode of communication. The second challenge (our second part) is the process of “redocumentarization” of public information established by data processing and its organization to enhance access and legibility. This evolution marks a transformation of relationship between public bodies and new actors in public services development.