At the WTIA Fast Pitch Forum today, blist CEO Kevin Merritt unveiled the new name and direction for his online database service. The company is now called Socrata, a combination of the words "social" and "data." The name also has ties to Greek philosopher Socrates.
"We are still democratizing data. We are still building an Internet scale data service, and we are still focusing on user experience as a means to drive usability in working with data," he said.
Merritt said that data is locked in so many formats, kind of like what happened with various formats for songs several years ago. Socrata is like a music player, making it easier for a consumer to interact and unlock data. Merritt calls this new category "social data discovery," with Socrata going after the government sector as its core market.
That's an area where Socrata has some experience with the blist tool being used by the Barack Obama administration shortly after his election. Merritt says there is a "new enthusiasm" to implement Web 2.0 technologies where they can save government agencies tens of millions of dollars.
"We are Socrata. We are making data social," Merritt said in his remarks today. He also noted that the new site, which went live today, is "no longer slow and ugly."
Socrata raised $6.5 million last year from Morgenthaler and Frazier Technology Ventures.
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