Visual Effects of the Spoken Word

Lisa Dahlby - Account Coordinator/Project Manager - Stanton & Everybody
Andrea James at the PI wrote an article today on the difference in language used in the second quarter earnings calls for Starbucks in 2007 and 2009. 2007 is on top, 2009 below. The words appear larger the more frequently they were spoken by the executives in the meeting. Notice the word "coffee" only appears large in 2009. Odd. The neat part though, to me, were the word clouds. Here's how she did it.

How were these word clouds made?

Seeking Alpha provides free transcripts of corporate earnings calls going back several years. First, I looked up the second-quarter earnings transcripts from 2007 and 2009.

Then, I pasted the transcripts into a free word cloud program provided on Wordle.net. Wordle lets you change the color and font scheme. It also provides word counts for the pasted text.

Worth reading: http://www.seattlepi.com/business405911_starbucks06.html?source=mypi