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The Architect Map - at Be2Camp GreenBuild Expo

by Su Butcher on May 10, 2012

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The ArchitectMap is a crowdsourced map of built environment people worldwide using Twitter. Find out more about it and join in.

The ArchitectMap is a crowdsourced map of built environment people worldwide using Twitter. Find out more about it and join in.

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Hello, I’m Su Butcher and I’m going to talk to you today about the ArchitectMap project that Mark Schumann and I have developed.
I’m going to look at What the ArchitectMap is; Why one should map oneself (generally and on the map in particular); How the map developed both technically and its history as an idea; Where do we go next?
The ArchitectMap (http://www.architectmap.net) is a crowdsourced map of construction people worldwide using twitter. Crowdsourced - you put yourself on it Construction people - but also built environment - in fact anyone working in this sector Worldwide - we have members on all continents except perhaps Antarctica Using Twitter -you currently need to have a twitter account to join - twitter is what we have in common.
Why map? Firstly it brings the virtual world into the real world. It allows people who don’t use tools like twitter to see where we are. It allows us to see who is in our area, whatever part of the sector they work in.
This Map shows people posting on photosite flickr(orange) and twitter (blue) or both (white) in Europe Everyone is using the internet which means it’s a great tool to talk to everyone. Everyone is mapping because it provides another common denominator.
Everything we do online evolves into a footprint of ourselves. This to me is a good thing, because it helps people to trust us. We gradually create a time and location based footprint of our credibility online. The architectmap maps twitter users in construction on a google map that everyone can see. It brings to local to an international forum - find your local construction twitter users. Have you joined the architectmap yet? You should.
Maps can also help change behaviour. Here is Martin and Vassos’s @ConstructCO2 project that also uses mapping to show the effect of deliveries and journeys to site on the CO2 footprint of a project. By seeing the map you can not only understand the enormity of the problem, you can also identify where you need to act and what personal action you can take to work with others to reduce the effect.
Other applications for the Architect Map? We know it has been used for Professionals to find collaborators; Professionals to find contractors; Journalists to find interviewees; and Candidates to find local employers All who are using twitter and therefore more open to approach from fellow twitter users.
So how did the map begin? It started with this article on the left I wrote at the beginning of 2009 looking for architects on twitter. I had joined in September and in a few weeks was able to compile a list of just fifty accounts I knew about. Over the coming weeks dozens of others found the blog post and began to add themselves to it.
A few months later I set up a twitter account just to follow those who had an architectural education - @ArchitectLeague. It now follows over 2000 accounts and I don’t update it very efficiently, there are so many of us on twitter! I also set up a @UKConstruction account to just follow UK Construction people. I publish a daily digest of the links the people I follow are sharing. Both accounts took off and have more than 13000 followers each - they have grown faster than my personal account.
Around the same time I came across a young developer called Ollie Parsley who had produced a piece of software called ‘Twitter Leagues’. Using it you could list a group of twitter users by the number of followers they had. When the competitive architects found out about it they all wanted to be on the list, and they all wanted to be ahead of their friends. The list exploded, just about the time that Twitter use exploded too. Today the Twitter Leagues app no longer works, but we have Peerindex to list the members of the ArchitectLeague. Here are the top 19.
Over the coming year I managed to track down two mapping tools. Firstly Yahoo Pipes, which worked ok but was a bit clunky and only mapped 500 users, so was obsolete to us quite quickly. Secondly I found MapMyTweeps which allowed you to make a map of your followers or those you follow (the latter in this case). Like many applications that required Twitter Authorisation to use, MapMyTweeps ceased to operate by the end of 2010, but here you can see a screenshot from when I first found it in the Summer of 2010.
Over the years many of us have been attempting to show the rest of our industry how useful twitter is as a tool to communicate. In the Summer of 2011 Ryan Briggs and tCn managed to interest a group of print publications by encouraging them to collate a top 100. The first was Construction News, and shortly after the Architects Journal, BD and Property Week followed. Ryan should be applauded for this work - it brought twitter into the radar of a much wider range of professionals. Fewer of them snigger now!
It was last Summer that Mark Schumann joined twitter, and he soon found the maps I was trying to resurrect without success. We had a chat on twitter and decided that a google map might be the answer, and from here the Architectmap was born. Initially we added people ourselves manually to a google map. Then we set up inviting collaborators and soon the map had to split into regions as more than 200 pins confused google! At the moment we still have regions and we also have separate maps for Architects(and all other consultant types), Contractors, Product Manufacturers and Suppliers, and Graduates. There are well over 1000 users and plenty of potential to add more as we build a new platform to house them. At the moment we are still operating with google spreadsheets as our database, but it works for now.
Here are some shots of the map close up: Top left is the Dubai contingent, with Mark in the middle. Top right are the consultants in the Eastern US. After UK this is the most popular map. Bottom left is the graduate map in the UK as it stood at the start of the year. Graduates (and students) working in the built environment are very welcome to join - its free! Bottom right is the Manufacturer map which lists manufacturers and suppliers. Thanks to Barbour for helping us get their database on the map - more and more of these firms are using twitter and we are helping them to join as they see the value of being in this community.
So we have our map - what do we do next? Quite naturally as a social media project, we need to build outposts out on the web to share our content with others.
We have a website which draws together all the strands and displays the maps. You can see who is using it, add yourself and download a ‘We’re on the ArchitectMap!’ button (‘I’m on the map’ buttons also available) for your website or blog. You can see the coverage we’ve had from World Architecture News, Arch Daily and the Independent. The Independent property blog introduced the Architectmap as a tool for finding a local architect you can get to know on twitter for your domestic project. What a great application!
We also have a facebook community where we share news, run competitions and generally interact with the community.
At Christmas Mark developed the first iPhone app for the Architect map. Over a few short months there have been five updates and you can now use the app to access a whole range of things including some you can’t see on the browser version. In March this year the iPhone Architect Map App won the Woobius/Specifinder Built Environment App award for ‘Best Useful Tool or Guide’ 2012. Quite an achievement for such a new product! Download the iphone app from the App store. We are hoping to develop an android version soon.
We also have a youtube channel that publishes video podcasts by our members. You can subscribe to receive updates via youtube or itunes. We share video that describes any aspect of our industry for others to share and learn from. One exampel is Kirsty Cassel’s brilliant video about what its like to study architecture part time whilst working part time in an architects office. If you have a subject you’d like to make into a video podcast do get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.
And of course there is twitter. This is an interactive visualisation of all the conversations on twitter using the #architectmap hashtag. People all over the world are telling their followers about the project.
Our newest addition is MiniApps. A miniapp is an iphone app we build inside the ArchitectMap iphone app. Users with a miniapp have a green pin, and can add a splash page, about us page, twitter feed, projects (or other) map and links to their blog, youtube channel etc. The project map is particularly useful as you can show in a very compelling way where you work and the sort of work you have done there. I use my mini app map to show where my upcoming Linkedin training workshops are. Mini apps aren’t free - they start at £5 for individuals and £20 for companies at the moment, but they are free to graduatemap members, and they do represent an extremely cost effective and very simple way of getting your own iphone app. Want one?
So where do we go next with the ArchitectMap? As it’s a crowdsourced project, we thought we should ask you. Let us know what you think anywhere where we are online, we’d love to hear from you.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to making the ArchitectMap a success. We can do so much more together!

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Hawkins Architecture, Inc. at Hawkins Architecture, Inc. 1 year ago

The Architect Map - at Be2Camp GreenBuild Expo Presentation Transcript

ArchitectMap Architectmap.net @Architect_Map #ArchitectMapby @Subutcher and @MarkSchuey
What • Why • How • Where creativecommoners
Crowd sourced mapConstruction peopleWorldwideusing Twitter What?
Why Map?Brings virtual world into the real world
Everyone is Doing it Eric Fischer
Make footprintshttp://architectmap.net
Change Behaviour constructco2.com
Applications• Find collaborators • Find Contractors• Find interviewees • Find Employers
History http://bit.ly/cNZSEVJanuary 2009 http://mashable.com/2009/01/09/twitter-growth-2008/
History • Construction on TwitterMarch 2009
History TwitterLeaguesMarch 2009 http://www.peerindex.com/subutcher/group/architects
History • Early MapsAugust 2010
History Twitter in Trade PressJune 2011
History • Google MapsAugust 2011
History • ArchitectmapJan 2012
Building Outposts http://theconversationprism.com/
Website
Facebook
iPhone App
Podcasts
Twitter#architectmaphttp://bit.ly/JahDnI
MiniApps
Where do we go Next? anonymouscollective
Thank You.@Architect_Map@SuButcher@MarkSchueyArchitectmap.net Google us! Images: Creative Commons http://www.gapingvoid.com/