Entropy, information rate and mutual information measures for the email content of information workers

Abstract

Although most people agree that the use of information technology increases workplace productivity, the exact relationship between productivity and different characteristics of information employees send and receive, such as entropy, information rate and mutual information is not very well studied. By using empirical data, this study develops methodologies to measure the entropy, information rate and mutual information of the email content exchanged between information workers. Furthermore, the validity of these methodologies is evaluated using comparable, publicly available datasets. The evaluation shows that important informational characteristics of email messages, namely the entropy values, are preserved even when messages undergo transformations that preserve privacy and anonymity.