Identifying word categories for diffusion studies in an email social network

Abstract

To better understand the sources of information workers' productivity in relation to email social network characteristics, we identify four distinct word categories in a corporate email corpus based on diffusive and informative characteristics. The four categories are "common - everyday", "common - specialized", "event", and "clique" words. Common - everyday words exhibit no diffusive or informative characteristics and are used regularly in everyday communication. Common - specialized words also exhibit no diffusive characteristics, but are hypothesized to be specialized vocabulary used infrequently in everyday communication. Event words are diffusive pieces of information that reach a majority of the population rapidly and are likely triggered by events. Clique words are diffusive pieces of information that reach only a small portion of the population and exhibit characteristics of exclusive, specialized knowledge shared among groups. These four categories can help future studies assess whether social networks determine information diffusion and whether information diffusion is associated with roductivity.