Liverpool Science Park News & Press

Liverpool-based open data project awarded $280,000 to launch in the US

ScraperWiki, the Liverpool-based technology start-up, has been named a Knight News Challenge Winner 2011. The company, which launched its "data mining" site in early 2010, was awarded $280,000 to develop its platform and services for journalists.

ScraperWiki is an online tool that makes finding and storing data simpler and more collaborative.  It will use the Knight Foundation funding to expand to the United States, improve the platform's functionality and make ScraperWiki even more useful to journalists around the world. Additionally, ScraperWiki plans to run events across 12 cities in 12 US States - to liberate local, state and federal data.

ScraperWiki CEO, Francis Irving, who received the award for US $280,000 at the MIT-Knight Civic Media Conference, Massachusetts, on Wednesday evening [22 June 2011] said:

"ScraperWiki is a place for doing data journalism. What matters is the people who use it.  We've found activist coders itching to find stories. We've found journalists who know that data is a new source, and want better ways to access it.

"I'm excited that the Knight Foundation is funding us to both make better tools for that community, and to run events to find the people who care across the US. The world is increasingly complex and its future tipped on a balance more than ever. Together we can sift the data, and perhaps help tip it the right way."

Aine McGuire, CMO, said:

"The UK is leading the world in the open data field and it is wonderful for us, a high tech British company focused on this area, to get recognition and validation in the US."

About the Knight News Challenge: The Knight News Challenge is an annual media innovation contest that aims to advance the future of news by funding new ways to digitally inform communities. The News Challenge is part of John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Media Innovation Initiative. More information at:
http://www.newschallenge.org/

About ScraperWiki: ScraperWiki is a technology platform that allows programmers to write and schedule screen scrapers and store the data they generate. In 2010-11 ScraperWiki ran a successful 'Hacks and Hackers' tour across UK & Ireland. Journalists from national and local titles and computer programmers competed in teams to produce 'data journalism' projects. More at: http://scraperwiki.com/ or on Twitter: http://twitter.com/scraperwiki

For more information please contact:
        •        Aine McGuire, ScraperWiki, on 07710 377929 / aine@scraperwiki.com
        •       Judith Townend, ScraperWiki, on 07841 515425 / judith@scraperwiki.com