[Air-l] RE: [Air-l]Answers'Studying newsgroups'

[Andrew Fiore]

On Monday, January 28, 2002, at 11:40 AM, Joao Vieira da Cunha wrote:

> A few people asked me to share the answers to my question on 
> newsgroup analysis, so here they go (although these are more 
> questions than answers):
>
> 1. Several people shared links to Network analysis software, I 
> have used this software for email but I still have to find an 
> useful way to use it on newsgroups because most of the postings 
> are to the group as a whole.

You can construct social networks from newsgroup threads by 
treating a reply by person B to person A's message as a message 
from B to A.  Although it is true that such a message is posted 
to the group and not sent directly or exclusively to person A, 
this concept may suffice depending on your goals.

Also, it doesn't make as much sense to generate reply-based 
social networks if few messages get replies or threads tend to 
be sparsely developed.

Andrew