Swivel - Data Web2.U Style?

Swivel Inc., may be one of a handful of companies serving [Web2.U->] applications. Even if you haven’t read earlier posts describing the idea of Web2.U, if you’re like most people who hear the term, you’ve got some idea even if you can’t articulate it. Funny thing is, the term Web2.0 has been hyped for a year and a half and that term still makes little if any sense. So, welcome to Web2.U, and now let’s discover how [Swivel, Inc. -> http://www.swivel.com] is a Web2.U company.

The Concept - Swivel is a site for sharing information, along the lines of [Youtube->http://www.youtube.com], [MySpace->http://www.myspace.com], [Flickr->http://www.flikr.com] and so many others. What distinguishes Swivel is the type of information you’re able to share. Swivel is all about sharing data sets! Now, you’d feel more excited about this if the word ‘data’ defined something more tangible. So, let’s take the concept and view it’s application in the real world. See, you’re more interested already!

The Application - Swivel provides hosting, visualization, and data analysis services for registered users. The site’s in beta and it’s free to post and view data. Users upload data sets and generate an assortment of visualizations all of which are made publicly available. Moreover, users can compare multiple data sets and create corresponding visualizations.
Here, you can see a graph containing annual sales of milk vs bottled water.

In essence, people can play with the data, exploring the information landscape in search of undiscovered relationships that hold some value. It’s an informational treasure hunt. Additionally, Swivel plans on offering for-fee private data accounts under which Users may use all public data while restricting access to their own data.