The 2018 Best Construction Blog is Let’s Fix Construction.
This interdisciplinary blog ranked fourth in the popular vote, but one of the three judges gave it first place status, and another ranked it second, and the combination of relative popular vote multiplied by judge’s rankings, pushed the blog to the top in the final evaluation.
Second ranking, using the evaluation model outlined below, went to The Pole Barn Guru blog, and third place went to Oldcastle Building Solutions.?Korte Co., which received the most popular votes but only received third place rankings from two of the judges, came in fourth. Construction Junkie, second in the popular vote, ranked fifth, as it received a single second place vote from one of the judges.
Unlike other years, when some blog publishers engaged in aggressive “get out the vote” strategies, the gap in popular vote for the highest-ranking blogs wasn’t that great.? In fact, only three votes separated the blog with the highest number of popular votes, Korte Construction (with 85 votes) and the blog with the second most popular votes, Construction Junkie (with 82 votes). Pole Barn Guru received the same total of judge’s votes, but scored lower in the popular vote than Let’s Fix Construction.
Accordingly, I devised a strategy that certainly gave significant weight to the popular vote, but put in the context the decisions by the three independent judges: Residential construction consultant Michael Stone, general business consultant Bill Caswell, and marketing design consultant Cass Pollack.
I calculated the total number of valid votes for all of the blogs (323) and created a percentage of total calculation to determine a ranking number for the popular vote. Then I multiplied the number by the ranking order each judge gave each blog (3 points for first place, 2 points for second place, and one point for third place) to reach a final score.
This approach seemed fairest to me. It gave great weight to the judge’s recommendations, but because of the multiplier factor, the results certainly respected the popular vote. In this context (rightfully) the blog that wins BOTH the judges’ and popular vote should be the first choice. (If we had a huge gap in the popular vote, it is likely that the blog with the most popular votes would have won if it had received a reasonable level of judge’s support, but it wouldn’t have needed to have the highest total count there.)
Let’s Fix Construction certainly deserves its victory.
It is a true interdisciplinary blog, and it tackles some sensitive and challenging issues affecting the architectural, engineering and construction community.
It’s co-founders, Eric D. Lussier of Precision Athletic Surfaces, and Cherise Lakeside, a specifier for LSW Architects, met through the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and keep in touch through social media. They come from different parts of the US — Eric is from a community just outside Burlington, VT and Lakeside is from Vancouver, WA.
Here’s the blog’s “why” observations:
Let’s Fix Construction is an avenue to offer creative solutions, separate myths from facts and erase misconceptions about the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry.
Possessing hundreds of years of combined experience in all facets of construction, the contributors of ‘Let’s Fix Construction’ demonstrate the way things are supposed to be in AEC. It is sometimes too easy to offer complaints without offering a resolution and that is why ‘Let’s Fix Construction’ was born.
I hope to reach Eric and Cherish for a video interview later this summer, after I return from an overseas vacation.
In the meantime, their victory is well deserved. Congratulations.
