Francis Irving

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

This article is about the British computer programmer and activist. For the British glider pilot, see Frank Irving.

Francis Irving
Francis Irving
EducationOxford University
OccupationChief Executive Officer

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]

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. http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/north-west-publishing/scraperwiki-nets-$280,000-from-knight-foundation-2011062411352/
  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". London: The Guardian.
  9. Archived 7 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  10. Technology. "The 101 most useful websites". Telegraph.co.uk. 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. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  14. http://www.thestraightchoice.org/about.php
  15. "Write to your Lord to Save Parliament | Save Parliament Blog". Bill111.wordpress.com. 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. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  19. "news:rewired ยป Francis Irving". Newsrewired.com. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
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