Visualizing threaded conversation networks: mining message boards and email lists for actionable insights

Authors:
Derek L. Hansen;Ben Shneiderman;Marc Smith
Affiliations:
College of Information Studies & Center for the Advanced Study of Communities and Information, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland;Dept. of Computer Science & Human-Computer Interaction Lab, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland;Connected Action Consulting Group, Silicon Valley, California
Venue:
AMT'10 Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Active media technology
Year:
2010

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Abstract

Analyzing complex online relationships is a difficult job, but new information visualization tools are enabling a wider range of users to make actionable insights from the growing volume of online data. This paper describes the challenges and methods for conducting analyses of threaded conversations such as found in enterprise message boards, email lists, and forums. After defining threaded conversation, we characterize the types of networks that can be extracted from them. We then provide 3 mini case studies to illustrate how actionable insights for community managers can be gained by applying the network analysis metrics and visualizations available in the free, open source NodeXL tool, which is a powerful, yet easy-to-use tool embedded in Excel 2007/2010.