Using Email To Uncover Hidden Social Networks

February 8, 2008 – 1:28 pm

It’s Friday, so I’m posting some stuff that makes me go, “hmm.”

Below is a diagram of email conversations within a company, immediately after an important project missed a deadline.

The color nodes represent people.  Clusters of nodes represent people reporting to important people (the proverbial you-know-what “hitting the fan”). The company used this diagram to find out who the truly important team members were, and decide on how to “un-stuck” the failing project. Neat.

Orgnet is the company that ran the study. They specialize in the “measuring of industry ecosystems, uncloaking of conspiracies and data mining & visualization of diverse information.”