Life & Research Notes

But there’s been a lot going on. From bus commutes to the housing search to catching up with old friends and making new ones, it’s been a busy few weeks. As my post two weeks ago mentioned, last week I started at Swivel, which has been fast paced with a lot to learn. We’ve got some cool stuff in the works there. Then that Thursday was an interesting meeting with some guys from Metaweb, after which I headed eight blocks down to a most excellent show at Electric Works featuring their collaboration with Paul Madonna. There’s been a lot more too, including some super long hikes on and around Mt. Tam. It’s great to be back in the bay area. So I’ve been a little bad about writing lately, but there’ll be more on this blog soon, and right now I’m happy to be so outwardly occupied.

This Monday I’ll join up full-time with Swivel, a social data aggregation, analysis and publishing platform. They are a startup in downtown SF, and I’ll be acting in a dual role as both designer and engineer, collaborating with some very talented developers to push the app to the next phase.

I actually learned about these guys quite a while back, as data aggregation and visualization was an area of interest for me when I applied to the lab, and when they got their first round of press I definitely noticed them. It’ll be fun to pick back up on this trail, well armed with my PLW and ML experiences. Eventually Swivel aims to act as an open bazaar of data, not only of static sets as it is now, but also live, dynamic feeds via the upcoming API. On top of the core services, they are also working on publishing tools for people to weave the data into consumable narratives.

No doubt the web industry is hot again, and I’ve seen a lot of interesting opportunities. Yet since I first contacted them, Swivel has solidly stood out from the crowd with an original and powerful underlying idea, combined with a fun, fast, smart, hard-working, and cohesive team. Needless to say I’m excited to dive in to the tasty data goodness.

Update: Swivel is also in the news today with pieces on TechCrunch and O’Reilly Radar about their recent success at the OECD World Forum.

I spent last Wednesday, July 4th at the county fair with some of my best friends. We did the whole bit, from corn dogs to the footsy wootsy massager to funnel cake to fireworks. It was one of those instant classic sort of days, when somehow everyone seemed to be on the same wavelength about just eating, wandering aimlessly in the heat, and letting the holiday wash over us.

There were actually two ferris wheels…

And some fireworks that were fun, though I have to say they were nothing compared to Boston last year on the roof of the lab. Poor CA and its fire danger.

Assuming technology keeps going the way it is, someday we won’t choose between flash and exposure time. We’ll get crisp shots whether we like it or not. So those blurred out, weirdly exposed digital photos are going to be even more nostalgic in their imperfection.