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Architekwiki

A Resource For Architects

Corbu - What I Have Learned So Far

10/26/2014

My first survey of architectural accounting methods collected 400 responses. These responses form the basis for this update. That first survey is effectively closed. I started to notice that I was asking different questions when I interviewed someone. So I cloned the first survey and deleted the questions that weren’t helping to understand the methods being used. Then I added a few new questions. Survey 2 is two questions shorter, but offers more opportunities to comment. I plan to publish the results of Survey 2 when the number of participants are similar to the first survey. But here’s what I have learned so far.

7 Ways To Use Word Clouds In Your Marketing

10/13/2014

I Use Wordle
The 'architecture' word cloud that you see here was created using Wordle. Wordle is a free Java app that works on any computer using Java - pretty much every computer. There are several other sources that you can use, just search for 'word cloud'. Wordle does what I am looking for. Here's a little background on Word Clouds before I explain how I made this one and give you my ideas for how you can use Word Clouds.

What They Are - Same Idea As Map Names
As you can see from the example above, word clouds are an arrangement of words where the frequency of use is designated by the relative size of the word. Maps use this same idea when they show cities with larger populations with larger names.

10 Years Old In Present Form
Using the size of a word or name to represent relative size has been around for several hundred years; but word clouds like this one are only ten years old or so. When word clouds, or tag clouds as they are also known, appeared about 2004, they represented the frequency that a word or tag appeared in a document, website, blog, etc. This took some serious programming to pull off. Now you can do it with an app using almost anything as your input.

We Have A New Ranking For The 'BEST OF'

10/6/2014

0 Comments

I have been updating the Best Of Architekwiki page every three months or so for a while now. I look at 'popularity' informally much more often, but I am still surprised by the new rankings.

There are two posts that not only survived, but their ranking is UNCHANGED:
Architectural Fee As A Percentage Of Construction Cost - Still #1 All-Time
Reception Counter Casework - Still #6 All-Time

There were also two posts that DROPPED OUT of the rankings:
Category: B20 Ext Enclosure
A site search for the DETAIL category - Exterior Enclosure.
10+ articles are loaded by this search.
Basecamp / Nozbe Comparison
A lot has changed for both Basecamp and Nozbe since this article was first published in 2012. Nevertheless the comparison is still useful...