Generate social networks automatically from email
Stumble It!Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best – in this case automatically ‘triaging’ inbound email by user defined importance. SNARF allows the user to design their own personal email importance criteria such as the "number of emails sent to me in the last month".
Review of SNARF from Microsoft Research : Social Network and Relationship Finder
For more details on SNARF plus system requirements and free download click
I was unable to review SNARF in action, as I am running Outlook Express, however I did review the excellent research paper on how SNARF Triage works and have two observations:
Firstly automated social sorting is a neat idea - to be able to assign, on an individual basis a series of 'social metrics' and have them automatically computed from the current and historical email traffic and then to be able to sort your inbox by them.
Secondly, and perhaps I am missing something, I wonder if there is a much simpler social filtering email solution that would work in 80% of the cases using fixed categories such as:
- VIP
Those we will always respond to quickly - top customer, mother, dentist - there may be no email traffic pattern to analyse here.
- Awaiting Reply
Those who we have sent a recent email and not yet got a closure reply
- Regular Communicator
Those where there is a current history of email message-reply 'pairs'
- The Rest
Anybody else
Tags: Social Networks, social software
Digg | 
del.icio.us | 
Reddit | 
Yahoo! | 
Add to my favourites
Bioteams Books Reviews
Could cell phones destroy civilisation
"Cell", the new novel by horror writer Stephen King, paints an all too plausible scenario where our addiction to cell phones enables a malicious virus to be pulsed to every phone in the world turning all who take the call into a flock of murderously mad zombies.
Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK
Related Social Networking Articles
Real creativity is a social activity
Creative innovation needs social networks not just neural networks
We often have in our head the stereotype of the brilliant but solitary artist or writer who cannot, or will not, work with anyone else but is this the whole story on creativity and innovation?
A Social Network Development Model
Way back in the social networking Dark Ages, OK - October 2005, I published a "A Virtual Community Development Model" with sports metaphors for each stage. Looking back today I think some of it still applies to the development of those social networks driven primarily by shared interests/knowledge (rather than by relationship building). But see what you think?
Social Network Analysis in practice
In Social Network Analysis: an introduction, Richard Cross, bioteams.com Guest Author, explains the importance of making organisations hidden social networks visible. In this follow-up article Richard discusses how Social Network Analysis (SNA) actually works in practice.
Leave a comment