udata is the engine of an open data platform: a customisable, skinnable social platform dedicated to open data. Public bodies use it to publish datasets, run a catalogue, harvest metadata from other portals, expose an API and support RDF. It is a Python backend; data.gouv.fr uses a separate frontend, cdata, on top of it. udata is server software that an organisation deploys on its own servers, following the project's installation guide.
udata is maintained by data.gouv.fr, the French public agency in charge of open data, which publishes the roadmap and builds consensus around it. It is collectively taken care of by members of the Open Data Team. The code is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3, and development is ongoing, with frequent releases. The software appears in the French government's SILL of recommended free software. Because you host it yourself, published datasets, user accounts and harvesting configuration stay on infrastructure you control, and no hosted offering from the maintainer is required.