During the last 24 hours, two very cool sites came to my attention, courtesy of Element List and the O’Reilly Radar. I am in data heaven
Swivel allows people to upload all kinds of data, compare datasets, visualize data, etc. It looks like an amazing resource to look at various public domain datasets such as demographics, disease trends and so on (I am picturing Declan Butler doing a Swivel/Google Maps mashup). Swivel is run by a bunch of geeks and even has some venture funding from Halsey Minor, the founder of CNET
Not to be left behind, IBM have released a similar product with absolutely gorgeous charting capabilities called Many Eyes. The idea is much the same. You can upload your data and slice and dice it in many ways. I haven’t done a comparison of the two sites, but Swivel definitely gives the feel of a site that will be converted into a viable business. Many Eyes (which at first glance I liked more) might just be something IBM makes available to people (The registration process of Many Eyes is a pain in the neck). Both sites support blogs (e.g. the image below came from Many Eyes), and emphasize sharing.
The applications are endless. In the world of science, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had search engines which could allow us to upload data sets directly to such services and then share the data and visualizations with colleagues. Swivel seems like it will be more easily integrated with other Web 2.0 technologies. Now if it could get the kind of graphing capabilities that Many Eyes has, it would be perfect. It is a fascinating time to be an information geek.
Visualizing data
During the last 24 hours, two very cool sites came to my attention, courtesy of Element List and the O’Reilly Radar. I am in data heaven
Not to be left behind, IBM have released a similar product with absolutely gorgeous charting capabilities called Many Eyes. The idea is much the same. You can upload your data and slice and dice it in many ways. I haven’t done a comparison of the two sites, but Swivel definitely gives the feel of a site that will be converted into a viable business. Many Eyes (which at first glance I liked more) might just be something IBM makes available to people (The registration process of Many Eyes is a pain in the neck). Both sites support blogs (e.g. the image below came from Many Eyes), and emphasize sharing.
The applications are endless. In the world of science, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had search engines which could allow us to upload data sets directly to such services and then share the data and visualizations with colleagues. Swivel seems like it will be more easily integrated with other Web 2.0 technologies. Now if it could get the kind of graphing capabilities that Many Eyes has, it would be perfect. It is a fascinating time to be an information geek.
Update: Pierre actually tried Many Eyes out
Technorati Tags: Swivel, Many Eyes, IBM, Data, Visualization