Francis Irving

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Francis Irving
Scraperwiki - Francis Irving - Flickr - Knight Foundation.jpg
Francis Irving
Education Oxford University
OccupationChief Executive Officer

Francis Irving is a British computer programmer, activist for freedom of information and former [1] CEO of ScraperWiki. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Francis Irving developed TortoiseCVS. [6]

He co-founded Public Whip with Julian Todd and became a developer of the affiliated TheyWorkForYou website, [7] a project which parses raw Hansard data to track how members vote in the UK Parliament. Initially risking prosecution for re-using the raw data which was under Crown copyright, the developers of Public Whip were later successful in getting permission to use it. [8] In 2004, Public Whip was recognised in the New Media awards. [9] In 2008, The Daily Telegraph rated TheyWorkforYou 41st in a list of the 101 most useful websites. [10] Irving together with Matthew Somerville wrote the code for FixMyStreet. [11]

Irving was also a senior developer of PledgeBank. [12] He collaborated again with Julian Todd to create 'The Straight Choice', a website (later renamed 'Election Leaflets') that archives election leaflets. [13] [14]

He was the Campaign Director of the Save Parliament campaign which opposed the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. [15] [16]

He was one of two people to suggest the winning idea of a site through which Freedom of Information Act requests could be made in a mySociety competition for ideas for public interest websites to build. [17] He was later to become the main developer of the site which was called WhatDoTheyKnow. [18] Francis has won seven New Statesman awards for websites he has worked on. [19]

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References

  1. ↑ Francis Irving's CV, flourish.org
  2. ↑ Francis Irving, Newswired.com
  3. ↑ Martin Rosenbaum (9 June 2010). "Open Secrets: Victory for whatdotheyknow website". BBC. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  4. ↑ "ScraperWiki nets $280,000 from Knight Foundation". 24 June 2011. Archived from the original on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  5. ↑ Irving, Francis (5 May 2011). "ScraperWiki: A story about two boys, web scraping and a worm | ScraperWikiScraperWiki". Blog.scraperwiki.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  6. ↑ "Companies". TortoiseCVS. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  7. ↑ The Silent State, Heather Brooke p128
  8. ↑ Brook, Heather (8 June 2006). "Make it work for us, Ms Tullo". The Guardian. London.
  9. ↑ "New Media Awards 2004". www.newstatesman.com. Archived from the original on 7 May 2010.
  10. ↑ Technology. "The 101 most useful websites". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  11. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". FixMyStreet. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  12. ↑ Benjamin, Alison (10 January 2007). "Public inquiry". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  13. ↑ Moore, Matthew (15 May 2009). "'British pensioners' on BNP election leaflet are actually Italian models". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 May 2009. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  14. ↑ "EU Withdrawal Bill – what your MPS said on your behalf – the Straight Choice". August 2018.
  15. ↑ "Write to your Lord to Save Parliament | Save Parliament Blog". Bill111.wordpress.com. 31 October 2006. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  16. ↑ "Francis Irving's CV / Resume". Flourish.org. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  17. ↑ "About". WhatDoTheyKnow. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  18. ↑ "mySociety's Freedom of Information site goes live". Mysociety.org. 22 February 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  19. ↑ "news:rewired » Francis Irving". Newsrewired.com. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
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