WhoTheBoss

March 23, 2003 7:35 AM

E-mail reveals real leaders. Analysis of email headers can reveal a companies true internal structure and point to informal leaders.
posted by srboisvert (7 comments total)

What does this indicate about that one person who always forwards stupid jokes and shit to everyone in the damn company? Are they the true power brokers in the electronic age?
posted by Space Coyote at 10:06 AM on March 23, 2003

Cheers for posting this srboisvert. I find network effects in ad-hoc communication pretty interesting. I wonder what this kind of analysis would reveal about the way we informally dispense and discuss information via webpages? Probably too difficult to scrape all the info at the moment, but RSS might make it interesting, if the format ever allows the capture of comments and trackback responses to "articles".
posted by walrus at 10:14 AM on March 23, 2003

I hear Bill Gates is working on a program to research this and is paying big bucks to beta testers....
posted by ElvisJesus at 5:32 PM on March 23, 2003

This also seems related..
posted by srboisvert at 6:36 PM on March 23, 2003

What does this indicate about that one person who always forwards stupid jokes and shit to everyone in the damn company? Are they the true power brokers in the electronic age?

You got it, Space Coyote. In hunter-gatherer times, power came from providing meat to the family and tribe. Later, in the industrial age, power flowed through money. Now, in the information age, it's stupid jokes and shit. Welcome to the brave new world.
posted by anewc2 at 5:47 AM on March 26, 2003

This also seems related..

Thanks. I have ever postulated that an ant colony works in a similar way to a brain at both synaptic and neuronal levels. I find this supportive.
posted by walrus at 2:12 PM on March 26, 2003

"(broadly) supportive".
posted by walrus at 2:13 PM on March 26, 2003