Cloud Watching

Christine Flanagan
February 2, 2009

Words are an amazingly rich form of data, but because they are impossible to ‘analyze’ in the usual (numerical) sense, it's always been difficult to convey the essence of a text without resorting back to yet another abstract and wordy discussion. The invention of the word cloud, an elegant visualization of word frequency, was first used as a way to extract the topical content of long-winded political speeches.

The other morning our new Strategy & Relationship Foreman Marc Braunstein discovered a simple tool, freely available at www.wordle.net, that allows you to instantly create word clouds that reveal the strength of individual words and concepts for any block of text you care to drop into it. Here's the one he created for the Business Innovation Factory:

As a brand and business strategist, Marc says he views this form of cloud-watching with fascination because the patterns of thought and expression quickly emerge, intentional and through happenstance. It's also an easy way for any writer to instantly become a graphic artist!

Marc Braunstein is the new Strategy & Relationship Foreman at BIF.