What is a social network and how do social networks actually work? SNA, Social Network Analysis is the art of analyzing and, most importantly, representing the flow of information through an organization. It is an astonishingly interesting field mainly because the flow of documents and information through digital networks can be used, for the first time, to accurately describe the level of communication and collaboration between sub-groups and individuals within an organization.
The image above shows the collaboration network within an organization based on a single topic. Each node represents a person and the size of the node represents the relative strength of collaboration between this person and all others in the network. The lines show how strongly an individual collaborates with other individual players in the group. Nodes are colored based on the department in which they work. Imagine how powerful this type of information can be when an organization is going through a strategic change, introducing a new product or responding to a competitive threat.
Perhaps the most unexpected features form this kind of analysis is the observation that some nodes in the network will act as "short circuits" for the flow of information. These nodes are connected in ways that dramatically reduce time it would otherwise take to spread a message throughout an organization by following the hierarchical channels of communication. They make it a small world!
Reference stuff -
http://www.orgnet.com/email.html
The Hidden Power of Social Networks, by Robert L Cross, also see http://www.robcross.org/sna.htm
Social Network Analysis: a handbook, by John P Scott
Email as Spectroscopy - a first rate paper from HP
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