April 17th, 2007
Swivel launches a YouTube for data and charts
Swivel doesn't mention the term "data visualization" in explaining what it does. Instead the company speaks about "exploring all the world's data and making it fun and insightful for everyone." As an example, Swivel announced that The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is making its 2007 OECD Factbook available on Swivel.
Swivel is creating a community around data and visualizations, allowing users to rate, discuss, tag, see related graphics as well as upload data and graphs. Currently, Swivel works only with public data, but according to company CEO Brian Mulloy, a subscription-based professional edition will be enabled by the end of the year on the hosted service for companies that want to keep their data private and secure.
Swivel was founded at the end of 2005 by CNET founder Halsey Minor. Initially, Swivel was going to be an on demand site in the online advertising and e-commerce space. A YouTube for data and charts appears to be a much better investment.
Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
