Chris Lightfoot (4 August 1978 – 11 February 2007) was an English scientist and political activist. He was the first developer, with Tom Steinberg, at e-democracy charity mySociety.[1]

Family and early life

He was born in Dulwich, England, in 1978.[1] His mother, Prue, was a journalist and his father, Robert, was a patent agent.[1] His older sister Steph taught him how to program the family's BBC Micro.[1] He used this knowledge of programming to produce a crater investigation model in the physics department at Westminster which was of an extremely high standard. This was part of a physics project in which he was awarded a 15 Merit — an outstanding and very rare full mark.

He attended Westminster School, where he was part of the team representing the school in the British Informatics Olympiad.[1] He began his undergraduate studies at Clare College, Cambridge focusing on Physics while studying a Natural Science Tripos.[1] He graduated with a Master's degree in 2000.[1]

Chris was one of the founders of Mythic Beasts, an ISP.[1]

Death

He had suffered from depression throughout his adult life.[1] Lightfoot died by suicide on 11 February 2007.[1][2]

Contributions to Internet

He played an important role in the development of:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The Times obituary (subscription required)
  2. Obituary on the blog of friend and colleague Francis Irving
  3. Lassally, Romi. "Hassle Me: Nagging 2.0" Huffington Post
  4. Connor, Alan. The new left and right? "BBC News"
  5. "Credit where credit is due".
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