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Email: The Lifeblood of Modern Communication
Abstract
The integration of email into everyday life makes email networks the most accessible, and in many cases most accurate, source of data for mapping actual social and work relationships. Analyzing organizational email networks and email lists can provide a wealth of social information that can inform important decisions and support novel interventions. Organizations can identify unique social roles, individuals who span the gaps between organizational silos, internal influencers, and employees in the need of creating more connections. Although an analysis of email collections poses some risks, social network analysis can be less intrusive than many other methods for understanding social interaction. This chapter focuses on personal and organizational email collections, and discusses preparing, cleaning, and importing email data in NodeXL for social network analysis. Furthermore, the chapter presents two projects that serve as examples of how to analyze personal email collections.
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