Tasty Data Goodies

What's cooking in the Swivel kitchen?

Hey everyone,

We've been making a lot of changes around Swivel lately.  And we want to share what we're cooking up in the Swivel kitchen with all of you.

For the next release of Swivel Business, we're working on enhancing performance, improving Swivel's look and feel, and giving you more interactivity when it comes to your data.

We are also dropping support for Internet Explorer 6 in the next release. We want to take advantage of the latest technologies, so we can build a better, more interactive product for you. As the possibilities expand for web applications, IE6 stands in the way of giving you the ultimate experience.

Since Microsoft released IE7 in 2006, the number of people using IE6 has fallen to a small minority of Swivelers.  Only 22% of visitors to swivel.com use the browser.  On Swivel Business, that number is even lower (10%).  And we're not the only ones moving on from the old technology; actually we're kind of jumping on the bandwagon here. Companies such as Apple, 37 signals, and Salesforce dropped support for IE6 earlier this year.

In order to keep using Swivel, people with the IE6 browser should take the chance to upgrade. All of these browsers are free to download and use:
  Download Internet Explorer 7
  Download Mozilla Firefox
  Download Safari

One other note about the upcoming release: we've also de-prioritized a few small features in favor of building newer, better ones (stay tuned).  You will no longer be able to rearrange reports with a simple drag and drop, but we're working on a more powerful interaction. Also, if your data is hooked up to our API, it will need to be reconfigured to work with our new API.  No worries though. Based on your feedback, this one should be easier to use.

Check back soon. We can't wait to share the new features we've been working on with all of you.

Thank you for your continued support. We always appreciate your thoughts and .

Swivel is growing! (Want to write code with us?)

• 

Working at Swivel

• We’re agile.
• We’re a tight bunch, so we have a lot of fun together.
• We offer medical, dental, vision, 401(k), commuter checks, equity, etc.
• We have a fully stocked kitchen, amazing 12th floor views, solid art on the walls, fun start-up environment.

We're looking for an engineer who

• ... can point to a web app in production and say "I made that."
• ... rocks the basics (linux or osx, ruby+rails or some other scripting web framework, sql, html, css, javascript).
• ... groks the web. Someone who gets HTTP status codes, knows how to avoid XSS, has built and worked with web APIs, speaks fluent REST.
• ... has a few interesting side projects because they're intellectually adventurous. Also, because they’re fun.
• ... thrives on solving supermassive problems with smart people. Our space is still nascent; there is no shortage of interesting work to do.

Full time in downtown SF, CA. No contractors, no telecommuters. Send a resume and tell us about an exciting project you’ve worked on. Don’t be afraid to send us code. Tell your friends! jobs@swivel.com

The Newest Swiveler

Hi, I'm Brent Fitzgerald, the latest addition to the Swivel crew. I'm taking on a dual designer and engineer role, helping the team push Swivel to new levels of openness, simplicity, and expressivity. We've got a solid starting point with the current version and the upcoming API, and the future releases will further transform the app into a full blown data platform.

I recently graduated from the MIT Media Lab, where I was a research assistant in the merry Physical Language Workshop. My research focused on designing and developing applications to support creative collaboration and virtual markets, with a focus on lightweight, socially enforced micro-contracts. Previously I also worked as an educational system developer at Stanford University, and I've travelled through SE Asia and the Pacific. It feels great to be back home here in the bay area after three years away, and I'm stoked to be joining up with the quality peeps here at Swivel. See also the announcement post over on my personal blog.

Here's a recent pic from my friend Burak, taken when I was visiting him in NY:

Introducing myself...

Hi!  I'm Jesse Robbins, and I recently joined as an Adviser helping Swivel get bigger and more reliable.  Like Sara, my background is a mix of Technology and real-world Emergency Management, and my focus is combining those skills to improve people's lives.

Previously I worked at Amazon.com from 2001-2006 where I was responsible for IT Operations and Availability (my business card read "Master of Disaster").  I'm also a certified Firefighter-1 and Emergency Medical Technician, and have accumulated a number of Hazardous Materials and Technical Rescue certifications.

When I'm not at Swivel I organize BarCampBank & DisasterCamp events, wrangle speakers @ Ignite, and blog for O'Reilly Radar.

Here's a picture from our trip to the OECD World Forum in Istanbul:

Swivel at World Forum

Over 1200 delegates at the OECD World Forum were asked to vote for the best of show exhibitor.  Out of over 30 organizations, Swivel and Mapping Worlds won awards for the best initiatives to turn information into knowledge.  Each winner was given the chance to present to the general session.  Below is the video of Dmitry and Brian presenting Swivel.

Professor Joe Wins Big

Joe Hellerstein, a technical advisor to Swivel and Professor of Computer Science at The University of California, Berkeley, just won a prestigious Test of Time award from the ACM for the 'lasting impact that [his research paper, Online Aggregation] had by opening up new database research directions.'

Congratulations, Professor Joe.  Whoop!

Swivel Gives Electric Talk at United Nations Palais, Geneva

Sara and I are in Geneva, Switzerland.  Geneva is home to many of the world's best minds in data collection, analysis and dissemination.  We have been lucky enough to meet with many groups of people from the United Nations and member countries and have learned a ton.

There are many stories we want to share from our experiences here and we will post those over the coming weeks.  Here's one to start:

We were invited to present Swivel to the leading statisticians of nearly every developed government in the world at the Palais (think earpieces, translators, suits & ties).  Just before we presented we were off to the side of the room preparing.  I was trying to plug my laptop into the wall, but the American to European adapter didn't fit.  After flipping it around a few times I jammed it in.  20 minute later, it was time to take the stage.  I reached down to unplug the laptop.  As I pulled the plug out the adapter stayed put exposing the prongs of the plug.  My index finger slid over the cold metal and zap! I was electrocuted by all 220 European volts.

Needless to say, the talk was electric and we were asked back for a follow-up session the next day.  The vision of the Swivel community to make life better through data is gaining traction.  We look forward to seeing what comes from our meetings this past week.

Stay tuned for more stories from our travels.

Swivel G rocks the Imperial Ballroom

Thanks to all of you who came out last night for the Ignite/Launchpad session at the O'Reilly Where2007 conference. There were lots of great products being shown. Like UpNext and their beautiful (seriously) 3-D cityscape of New York City. Or GeoCommons launched by Fortiusone, a super cool group we have gotten to know recently. And leave it to the Spanish contingent for highly entertaining demos on Tagzania and Hipoqih.

There was also a round or two of voting. We are happy to report that Swivel G rocked the Imperial Ballroom vote. Which means Visnu and Tao will get to do their thing again during the keynote session tomorrow morning. Be there!

Vote for Pedro

Swivel has been selected as a finalist in the Data category by the editors of CNET Webware.com for the Webware 100 Awards. We are flattered, excited and up against some stiff competition.

But what does webware even mean, you may ask? If you looked at your own habits, you might find the answer. Do you even remember the days of email when you couldn't log on with a web browser? Even the most enterprise of enterprise-wide applications have web-based versions we have come to depend on — regardless of how limited their functionality may be, the convenience of having it accessible from anywhere is key. We rely on web products to organize our documents, schedules, photos, bookmarks, our work, our lives.

More and more features and functionality are moving onto the web. Gone are the days when the "thick-" versus "thin client" question even made sense. Thick clients are going the way of the dodo. As for shrink-wrap? Huh?

Enter Swivel. Not only do we hope to revolutionize how data is found and used, but how people collect, manage and innovate using data — all on the web.

Though there are a lot of great products in the category to choose from, we think ours is a unique take on data not found anywhere else. And, after all, this is the Data category we are talking about. Therefore, we kindly ask, if you are so inclined, please stop by and vote for Swivel.

User voting will open Wednesday May 23 at Noon Pacific Time and stay open until 9:00 AM June 11.

Invitation to Party with Swivel

Do you love Swivel?
Have you ever wanted to meet the Swivel team?
Can you fit Tuesday evening cocktails into your schedule?

If the answers to these questions are “Yes,” then we would love to extend an invitation to a Swivel party being hosted in San Francisco. Swivel is presenting at the Web 2.0 Expo (at Moscone Center) on Tuesday, April 17^th, and we are having a party that evening from 5 pm to 8 pm. If there are any Swivelers out there who would like to meet the team, have some complimentary drinks and appetizers, and provide us with any valuable feedback, we would love to meet you!

Just send a RSVP e-mail to feedback@swivel.com, and we will put your name on the list and send you the venue details. We hope that all the S.F./Bay Area Swivelers can attend!