Francis Irving
Encyclopedia
Francis Irving is a 36 year old British computer programmer and activist for freedom of information.
Francis Irving developed TortoiseCVS
.
He co-founded Public Whip
with Julian Todd
and became a developer of the affiliated TheyWorkForYou
website, 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. In 2004, Public Whip was recognised in the New Media awards. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph
rated TheyWorkforYou 41st in a list of the 101 most useful websites. Irving together with Matthew Somerville wrote the code for FixMyStreet
Irving was also a senior developer of PledgeBank
. He collaborated again with Julian Todd
to create 'The Straight Choice a website (later renamed 'Election Leaflets') that archives election leaflets.
He was the Campaign Director of the Save Parliament campaign which opposed the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
.
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. He was later to become the main developer of the site which was called WhatDoTheyKnow
. Francis has won seven New Statesman awards for websites he has worked on.
Irving is currently CEO for ScraperWiki
.
Francis Irving developed TortoiseCVS
TortoiseCVS
TortoiseCVS is a CVS client for Microsoft Windows released under the GNU General Public License. Unlike most CVS tools, it includes itself in Windows' shell by adding entries in the contextual menu of the file explorer, therefore it does not run in its own window...
.
He co-founded Public Whip
Public Whip
The Public Whip is a parliamentary informatics project that analyses and publishes the voting history of MPs in the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
with Julian Todd
Julian Todd
Julian Todd is a British computer programmer and activist for freedom of information. He works in Liverpool.He was inventor and co-founder of Public Whip with Francis Irving. And also the affiliated TheyWorkForYou website, a project which parses raw Hansard data to track how members vote in the UK...
and became a developer of the affiliated TheyWorkForYou
TheyWorkForYou
TheyWorkForYou is a website run by mySociety, a project of registered charity UK Citizens Online Democracy, and is a tool for political campaigners and those interested in the Parliamentary activities of UK MPs, Lords, and Northern Ireland MLAs....
website, a project which parses raw Hansard
Hansard
Hansard is the name of the printed transcripts of parliamentary debates in the Westminster system of government. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard, an early printer and publisher of these transcripts.-Origins:...
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. In 2004, Public Whip was recognised in the New Media awards. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
rated TheyWorkforYou 41st in a list of the 101 most useful websites. Irving together with Matthew Somerville wrote the code for FixMyStreet
FixMyStreet
FixMyStreet is a mySociety website through which users can report potholes, broken street lights and similar problems with streets and roads in England, Scotland and Wales to their local council or related organisation, and see what reports have already been made.-History:The site was initially...
Irving was also a senior developer of PledgeBank
PledgeBank
PledgeBank is a website which runs pledges on all topics, of the form: "I will do x if y number of people agree to do the same." Such public commitments are a non-coercive way to solve problems of collective action, especially when the goal is a public good. PledgeBank was founded by mySociety and...
. He collaborated again with Julian Todd
Julian Todd
Julian Todd is a British computer programmer and activist for freedom of information. He works in Liverpool.He was inventor and co-founder of Public Whip with Francis Irving. And also the affiliated TheyWorkForYou website, a project which parses raw Hansard data to track how members vote in the UK...
to create 'The Straight Choice a website (later renamed 'Election Leaflets') that archives election leaflets.
He was the Campaign Director of the Save Parliament campaign which opposed the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was enacted to replace the Regulatory Reform Act 2001 .-The Bill for this Act:...
.
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
MySociety
mySociety is an e-democracy project of the UK-based registered charity named UK Citizens Online Democracy, that aims to build "socially focussed tools with offline impacts". It was founded by Tom Steinberg in September 2003, and started activity after receiving a £250,000 grant in September 2004...
competition for ideas for public interest websites to build. He was later to become the main developer of the site which was called WhatDoTheyKnow
WhatDoTheyKnow
WhatDoTheyKnow.com is a website run by the registered UK Citizens Online Democracy which allows anyone to make a UK Freedom of Information request in public. The site acts as a permanent public archive of FOI requests made through it.Around 15% of requests to UK Central Government are made...
. Francis has won seven New Statesman awards for websites he has worked on.
Irving is currently CEO for ScraperWiki
ScraperWiki
ScraperWiki is a website for collaboratively building programs to extract and analyze public data, in a wiki-like fashion. "Scraper" refers to screen scrapers, programs that extract data from websites. "Wiki" means that any user with programming experience can create or edit such programs for...
.