Thursday, October 15, 2009

Tag Cloud of An Exit133 Conversation


Exit133 is pretty pleased with the conversation going on via a post that started with one small twitter comment. To date there have been over 120 comments posted on the topic "Rethinking Downtown Tacoma". The tweet in question was

Tacoma should rethink it’s downtown. Preferably before everyone leaves.

and was posted by Janine Terrano, the CEO of Topia Technology. A Tacoma success story both as an individual and as a company.

Reading through the large quantity of commentary from a wide variety of posters peaked my interest in how this conversation might look as a Tag Cloud. For a short primer on tag clouds, read here. The result is not very elegant, but was quick in the making thanks to MakeCloud. Along with creating clouds from text, they also provide code to create a cloud from your blog.

Larger text means greater emphasis and a more frequent use. I am not that excited to see that "Don't" was the first tag in the cloud, as it seems a bit negative. However without context, which is not provided here, it could just as well come from the phrase, "don't be a hater". Note that streetcars, Tacoma, light rail and downtown are all emphasized.

I would like to see it in a more graphical format, phrasing included and a center point of the key elements. Plus the links only go to Google searches.

But until then, it is interesting in and of itself.


don’t change parking requirements whole downtown plan seems we’re yet moving being sure problem city council it’s people perhaps reason piece coming market tacoma wants posted oct think possible connect tacoma’s neighborhoods streetcars they’re system lots less buildings block large building never once pedestrian businesses can’t enough streetcar buses everywhere anywhere street cars neighborhood day goes take you’re without continue send means always step away walking there’s planning david koch convention center shopping time support retail place live portland seattle built move instead potential 000 idea put routes signal priority traffic everyone else done tacoma1 i’m i’ve happen morgan got talk talking long next needs love isn’t small business streets bigger than land etc anyone drive stores urban years understand level many someone stops few something thinking provide vision around rather actually getting already nothing that’s comes i’ll least outside area university real issues plans options even transportation near might town close waterfront 6th regional maybe mass transit reasons lot still used areas density huge light rail park within dome walk development trying find great future pretty bus allow leave home using station anything because give cities let stop try doing too north roads cool didn’t work connecting help ever somewhere south ride mofo hood hill commerce bad tcc however high pierce money increase feel times own days having projects build agree looking entire plaza together uwt funding point college far life car above say during service avenue minutes along year district stadium population county same sound million tax authority create lid side space project cost local economic demand end broadway save elks sense while i’d keep janine kind mind post both start hopefully major current mall line defiance currently ideas hotel erik foss design mile saying mean free access easy store important ave popular successful brewery aren’t learn route ridership won’t dedicated efficient expensive federal remember imagine caring worth about? jesse lightrail vegas speed funds tag cloud

3 comments:

Morgan said...

Very cool! Thanks for posting!

NineInchNachos said...

I see mofo!

kevinfreitas said...

Always fun stuff to see especially when dealing with text-focused content. I'm particularly a fan of taking State of the Union speeches and looking at them as such.

FeedTacoma has something similar setup when you just go straight to FeedTacoma.com/search It's a great, live way to see what kinds of topics are trending in the huge database of local blogs posts, conversations, events, and even tweets. Enjoy!

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