Scraperwiki gets data journalism boost

A LIVERPOOL business that uses computer code to extract and analyse publicly available information has won a £175,000 grant to support its activities in the US.

Scraperwiki, set up by Francis Irving and Julian Todd, has been awarded the grant by the Florida-based Knight Foundation to improve the service as a platform for journalists.

It will also run events in 12 states to bring together journalists and programmers across the US.

“What really matters about ScraperWiki is the people using it. Data is dead if it doesn’t have someone, a journalist or a citizen, analysing it, finding stories in it and making decisions from it,” said founder Mr Irving on his website.

Mr Irving is closely associated with freedom of information and was previously involved in establishing Theyworkforyou.com which collates MPs voting records and other Parliamentary information.

Scraperwiki was awarded the cash as part of the Knight News Challenge which rewards innovative projects that help journalists. The foundation was set up by the Knight family who owned a string of newspapers across the US.