Tasty Data Goodies

Duke and Swivel

Duke University has been a long-time supporter of Swivel.  Yesterday, they released an article that details their social media strategy.

As you could have guessed, Duke counts on Swivel to be one of the tools that gets their community engaged.

At Swivel, we're big fans of engaging our community on many different levels.  That's why we have our blog, our Twitter account, our YouTube channel, feature request forums, and more.

You can read more about Duke's strategy at Duke University news.

Swivel is Hiring

Do you like data?  Are you an awesome developer, designer, or marketer?  Then you should apply for a job with Swivel.

Swivel is an unbelievable place to work.  Here are some of the reasons why.

1. We invented an industry: http://bit.ly/swivel-launch
2. We do meaningful work: http://bit.ly/swivel-world-forum and http://bit.ly/swivel-oecd
3. We have a fully stocked kitchen, amazing 12th floor views, and a great downtown location.
4. We're on the cutting edge of technology: http://blog.swivel.com/code
5. We are a small, smart and entrepreneurial bunch.  You'll have a huge impact and learn tons here.

Find out more on our careers page.

New Stuff: updated look, comments on reports, improved performance

Here's a quick update about some new stuff at Swivel:

Updated look 

First, we've got a brand new look and some nice marketing pages to go along with it.

Comments on Reports

You've been able to create reports and share reports in Swivel for a while.  Now the people share with can contribute back by leaving comments.

While reports are very basic right now, we see them as the very heart of Swivel.  I can't wait until we show you the amazing stuff we've got planned for them.

Performance

We know it:  Swivel ain't fast enough.  Performance has been our #1 concern lately, and we're just starting to turn the corner.  Today's release should feel a bit zippier.  But we've still got more to do.

That's it.  Back to work!

Hope you enjoy the new stuff.

A Few of Our Favorite Blogs

Keeping up with all that's going on in the datasphere is sometimes a tall task.  Who knew that there people who work with data could be so prolific?

Here are some of the blogs we read to keep on top of things.

• A Stubborn Mule's Perspective - Data analyses by Swiveler seancarmody.  Posts dig deep into all sorts of data, and always have interesting conclusions.
• The Big Picture - Economic analysis and commentary with simple, understandable graphs and insights.
• Business Intelligence for Business People - A very comprehensive blog about the latest trends in Business Intelligence.
• Chart Porn - If you like charts, you'll love this site.  It posts dozens of data visualizations from all over the web each week.
• The Changing Face of BI - The personal blog of Lindsay Wise, an analyst in the Business Intelligence space.  You can count on Lindsay to keep you up-to-date with what's happening in BI.
• Data Doodle - An extremely well-written blog that meanders over various BI topics.
• Data Mining - It's great to see data and tech go hand-in-hand.  This blog by Swiveler (and creator of BlogPulse) Matthew Hurst has a health dose of both.
• Eager Eyes - Not to be confused with Many-Eyes, this blog talks about data analysis and information visualization.  It's written by the talented Robert Kosara, a professor at UNC Charlotte.
• Flowing Data - I don't know how he does it, but Nathan Yau always finds and features the latest and greatest on data visualization and sharing.  This blog is a must read.
• The Guardian Data Blog - Great data and visualizations from the Guardian newspaper.
• Information Aesthetics - The best information visualizations from across the web.
• Jorge Camoes' Charts - A great blog about the best practices in information understanding and design.  The world would be a better place if everybody took Jorge's charting advice seriously.
• Juice Analytics - A blog on data and data analysis from some of the best analysts out there.
• Junk Charts - Commentary about and reviews of different charts found on the web.
• The Numbers Guy - The Numbers Guy at the Wall Street Journal always has interesting figures and facts.
• OECD Fact Blog - Great summaries of interesting data about the OECD and the rest of the world.
• Peltier Technical Services - A nice blog on some of the more enigmatic aspects of Microsoft Excel.
• Ranking America - As the name implies, this blog ranks America in almost every possible dimension.
• Simple Complexity - A well presented aggregate of awesome infographics from across the web.
• Social Science Statistics Blog - Has a ton of interesting stories and analyses around data.  Laypeople may find the occasional summary of advanced statistical methods a bit confusing.
• Stamen Design - The blog of Stamen Design, most famous for the Oakland Crimespotting map, but experts in all types of interactive visualizations.
• Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference and Social Science - This blog can sometimes have some fairly advanced statistics, but it also highlights a ton of tasty data tidbits.
• Tecz Notes - The personal blog of Michal Migurski from Stamen Design.  Interesting commentary on data, maps and the state of the web.
• TrendsSpotting - Tons of data on the latest and greatest in technology.  What's not to love?
• Visual Business Intelligence - The blog of visualization expert Stephen Few.  Stephen has great critiques of visualization tools.
• Visualizing Economics - Great infographics and information about current happens in the world.
• Waxy - Andy Baio describes himself as a journalist/programmer, but I think he's a true data geek.  Interspersed with an eclectic mix of postings are some impressive data analyses.
• Well Formed Data - Another great place to find interesting information visualizations.
• Visual Information Exploration - I find myself coming back to this blog more and more often.  It has a ton of great data-related content.

Are we missing any?  Leave links to your favorite blogs in the comments.

Au Revoir!

Over two years ago, I wrote my first data story for Swivel's home page on wildfires in California.  Since then, I have watched Swivel grow from a public playground for data lovers to Swivel Business, where people can share and explore their private numbers. I was as excited then as I am today about Swivel's mission to empower the world's data.

In that time I've had the opportunity to grow personally as well, from a student intern to Swivel's marketing and community development gal. I've had the pleasure of working with a brilliant and dedicated team, that also knows when to have a little fun.

So it is with some heartache that I tell you today is my last day at Swivel. I am planning to pursue my PhD in English Literature. You'll probably still see me around Swivel though. (It's become a bit of a second nature to upload good data when I see it these days.) And if you want to keep in touch, you can follow me on Twitter.

New stuff: reports and more chart types

Share your story

You know your numbers have a compelling story to tell, so share it with your team! Combine charts and insights in an interactive report. Your team can explore the numbers and help shape the final conclusion.

More chart types

You asked for them, and we built them. Swivel now has several chart types for all your graphing needs. In addition to vertical bar, line, and area charts we now offer stacked bar, stacked area, pie, and scatter charts. Check 'em out:

Apps for America: the data.gov challenge

Sunlight Labs is turning government data into usable information and they want your help! This year, they are hosting the Apps for America contest alongside Google, O'Reilly Media, and TechWeb.

Developers interested in data transparency can win up to $10,000 for creating an app that helps the public access and understand government data released by data.gov.

The deadline for apps 11:59:59pm Pacific Time on August 7th. Winners will be announced at the Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase in Washington, DC on September 8th.

What are you waiting for? Find out more about the contest and how to submit your app.

Not a developer? You can still check out all the apps and everyone will be able to cast their vote on the three finalists between August 24th and September 7th. (How democratic!)

Charting Health Care Reform

Everyone's talking about Obama's initiative for health care reform. As a result, data and charts are popping up in the news on the confidence in and cost of reforming health care. Here's a few tasty goodies:

On Healthcare, Americans Trust Physicians Over Politicians from Gallup: Seventy-three percent of Americans are confident that physicians will recommend the right way to reform the health care system. Those polled extended significantly less confidence to President Barack Obama and six other groups that will take part in the health care reform debate.

 

Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care from the New York Times: A recent poll finds that a majority of Americans think that President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit. 34 percent disapprove of the way he's handling health care.

 

Congress: A Good Place for Health Care to Die from FiveThirtyEight: Nate Silver takes a look at Clinton's approval ratings within the context of the Health Care Debate in 1993-4.

 

Rhetoric of Rationing Health Care Overlooks Reality and graphic from the New York Times: Article exploring the idea of rationing health care. Graphic shows that the United States spends more on health care than other countries, but our survival rates aren't always better.

 

How Health Care Stole Your Pay Raise from The Atlantic: Health care could be robbing you of your bonus at work. The Atlantic explains, "health care reform isn't just about reforming care. It's about reforming the economy. New bumper sticker: 'Reform Health Care; Get a Raise!'"

New Stuff: feature and download your numbers

We're releasing new features as fast as we can build them. In this week's deploy, don't miss these goodies:

Feature your faves
If there's a certain spreadsheet or chart that you don't want your group to miss, feature it!

Easier chart creation
Creating charts on Swivel just got more intuitive. Now, see chart errors and tips pop up right at the problem area. For a quick fix, click on the action link or just ignore it.

Dive into the data
When others are interested in seeing the numbers behind a chart, they can dive right in. We only show the numbers used to create the chart, so if there's confidential information on your source spreadsheet, it's stays confidential.

Download your numbers
Now it's just as easy to get your numbers out of Swivel as it is to get them in. Download charts and spreadsheets so you can have a taste of Swivel in your reports and presentations.

Swivel Product Update

Just a quick update about some exciting new features at Swivel.

New Feedback Mechanism

We're now using UserVoice to collect feedback.  UserVoice lets you vote on what features you'd like to see next for Swivel. Check it out now and leave us some feedback!

 

Search

We've added a search box in the upper right hand corner, so you can find your files more easily.