JP2006119699A - Communication analysis device, its method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication analysis device capable of easily analyzing communications while maintaining the privacy of members to be investigated. <P>SOLUTION: The communication analysis device includes a transmission/reception consecutive storage part 21 for recording a history of transmission and reception of emails inputted to and outputted from a mail server 4; and a continuity determining part 22 that refers to the history of transmission and reception to determine whether or not any emails transmitted by an email receiver exist in the emails inputted or outputted within a predetermined number of emails selected. Thus, it is possible to calculate a communication analysis index that enables any receiver who received the emails selected to determine that the messages of the emails have been transmitted to others. This makes it possible to analyze communications with ease while maintaining the privacy of the members to be investigated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication analysis apparatus, method and program for analyzing a communication record using an electronic mail between organization members in order to investigate characteristics of communication activities between the organization members.

  Traditionally, in order to investigate the characteristics of organizational activities, methods have been used to record and analyze communication in various forms, such as communication using in-house mail between the constituent members of the organization and verbal reports. . For example, in a technique called social network analysis found in Non-Patent Document 1, a network between members of an organization is represented by a network diagram. As a result, it is possible to know the roles of the constituent members and the dependency relationships between the constituent members that are not represented in the organizational chart on personnel.

  However, since network analysis is performed by an analyst conducting interviews and questionnaires to members of the organization, it is a problem that it takes time. Furthermore, analyst's experience is required for analysis.

  In recent years, with the development of the Internet, a lot of communication has been performed by electronic mail. E-mail is performed through a computer that manages transmission / reception of e-mail called a mail server. A communication record (electronic mail log) is left in the mail server, and network analysis can be easily performed by using these.

  Non-Patent Document 2 proposes a network analysis technique using this electronic mail log. The network analysis is intended to analyze an organization's communication by expressing who and who have communicated with a graph and examining the structure of the graph (for example, see FIG. 1). In FIG. 1, communication participants are nodes, and communication between them is represented by a link. The number of times of communication is represented by the thickness of the link.

  The important indicators in network analysis are the incoming and outgoing orders, the distance between two points, and the central mediation. The number of links going to the node is called the incoming order, and the link leaving the node is called the outgoing order. The distance between two points is the number of nodes that reach the node that directly exchanged e-mails from one node to another and how many nodes reach the node. Further, mediation centrality represents the degree to which information is transmitted when a certain node is removed.

Also, in Patent Document 1, history information of user's message exchange is stored, the number of recipients who have returned an e-mail message, the number of recipients who have received a reply, the total amount (length) of posted messages, posts The user's suitability for the role in the group activity is obtained from the number of the selected threads.

Lawrence Prussack, Rob Cross, Naohisa Nishi, “Social Network: A Source of Organizational Vitality” DIAMOND Harvard Business Review, October 2002, p. 96-107 Yasuda Yuki, “Network Analysis”, Shinsyo, 1997 JP 2003-216785 A

  As described above, the network index can be derived only from the transmission / reception relationship of the e-mail, and can be processed even with a large amount of log data by a computer. However, since it is an index from the transmission / reception relationship of electronic mail, a result different from the actual role may be obtained. For example, there are a plurality of groups (groups A, B, and C shown in FIG. 1), and participants actively send and receive e-mails within each group, but there are not many sending and receiving to other groups. think of. If there is a participant who belongs to a plurality of groups (for example, node E shown in FIG. 1), this participant will show high mediation centrality. However, in reality, it is assumed that information does not play a role from one group to the other group. Thus, it is difficult to estimate the flow of information only from the transmission / reception relationship of e-mail. This problem can be solved by analyzing the body of the e-mail, but the convenience of processing is lost. Furthermore, investigating the content of e-mail can violate the privacy of participants and is difficult to implement in this respect as well.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a communication analysis apparatus, a method and a program thereof that can easily analyze a communication while maintaining the privacy of constituent personnel who are survey subjects. Objective.

  In order to achieve such an object, the communication analysis apparatus of the present invention includes a transmission / reception record storage unit that records a transmission / reception history of an electronic mail input / output to / from a mail server, and refers to the transmission / reception history to determine a predetermined one from the analysis target electronic mail. Whether or not there is an e-mail sent by the recipient of the e-mail to be analyzed among e-mails inputted or outputted within a certain number or e-mail inputted or outputted within a predetermined time from the e-mail to be analyzed By determining, it has the structure which has a continuity determination means which determines whether the said email of the analysis object is continuing. Therefore, it is possible to calculate a communication analysis index that allows the receiver who has received the e-mail to be analyzed to determine that the e-mail message has been transmitted to another person. Therefore, it is possible to easily analyze the communication while maintaining the privacy of the constituent personnel who are the subjects of the survey.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the continuity determining means may output a determination result of continuity when there is at least one email determined to be continued in the email to be analyzed. Therefore, communication analysis can be easily performed by determining continuity.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the email to be analyzed is an email that has been input within a predetermined number of emails to be analyzed or an email that has been input / output within a predetermined time from the email to be analyzed By determining whether or not there is a predetermined number or more of e-mails sent by the recipients, it can be configured to have expandability determining means for determining whether or not the e-mail to be analyzed is expanding. . Therefore, it is possible to calculate a communication analysis index that allows the receiver who has received the e-mail to be analyzed to determine that the e-mail message has been transmitted to a plurality of persons. Therefore, it is possible to easily analyze the communication while maintaining the privacy of the constituent personnel who are the subjects of the survey.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, a takeover number calculating means for determining whether or not the e-mail determined to be continued is further continued and determining the number of recipients to which the e-mail has been taken over. It has the composition to have. Accordingly, it is possible to calculate a communication analysis index for determining how many people have passed the e-mail to be analyzed. Therefore, it is possible to easily analyze the communication while maintaining the privacy of the constituent personnel who are the subjects of the survey.

  In the communication analysis device having the above-described configuration, the continuity determination means includes the number of e-mails transmitted and received by the mail server between the e-mail to be analyzed and the e-mail sent by the recipient, or According to the delay time from the transmission of the e-mail to be analyzed until the recipient transmits the e-mail, the probability of continuing the e-mail message to be analyzed is output. Therefore, it is possible to determine how much the message continuity is maintained.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, is the continuity determination unit taking out the transmission / reception history of the e-mail transmitted / received in a preset analysis target period, and whether the transmitted / received e-mail has continuity? And determining the number of e-mails having the continuity. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the number of e-mails in which messages are continued for e-mails transmitted and received during a predetermined analysis target period.

  In the communication analysis device having the above configuration, the expandability determination unit extracts the transmission / reception history of the email transmitted / received in a preset analysis target period, and has the expandability for the transmitted / received email. It is determined whether or not the number of e-mails having the expandability is calculated. Therefore, the number of e-mails whose messages are expanded and spread can be calculated for e-mails transmitted and received during a predetermined analysis target period.

  In the communication analysis device having the above-described configuration, the takeover number calculating means extracts the transmission / reception history of the e-mail transmitted / received during a preset analysis target period and calculates the takeover number for the transmitted / received e-mail. It is said. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the number of persons who have taken over the messages for the emails transmitted and received during the predetermined analysis target period.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the continuity determination unit determines whether or not all the electronic mails transmitted by the selected analysis subject have the continuity, and the electronic device having the continuity is determined. The number of emails is calculated. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the number of e-mails for which messages have been continued for e-mails sent and received by the selected analysis subject.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the expandability determining means determines whether or not all the electronic mails transmitted by the selected analysis target person have the expandability, and the electronic device having the expandability It is configured to calculate the number of emails. Therefore, the number of e-mails whose messages are expanded and spread can be calculated for the e-mails sent and received by the selected analysis subject.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the takeover number calculating means is configured to calculate the takeover number for all electronic mails transmitted by the selected analysis target person. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the number of people who have taken over the message for the electronic mail transmitted / received by the selected person to be analyzed.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the continuity determining means determines whether or not the continuity of all e-mails transmitted by all members of the selected analysis target group has the continuity. It is configured to calculate the number of e-mails having. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the number of e-mails for which messages have been continued for all e-mails sent by all members of the selected analysis target group.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the expandability determining means determines whether or not the expandability of all e-mails transmitted by all members of the selected analysis target group has the expandability. It is configured to calculate the number of e-mails having. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the number of e-mails whose messages are expanded and spread for all e-mails sent by all members of the selected analysis target group.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the takeover number calculating means is configured to calculate the takeover number for all e-mails transmitted by all members of the selected analysis target group. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the number of people who have taken over the message for all electronic mails transmitted by all members of the selected analysis target group.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the continuity determination unit does not delete the number of e-mails determined to have continuity when the transmission / reception record of the selected analysis subject is deleted and the transmission / reception record. Sometimes, the difference from the number of e-mails determined to have continuity is obtained and output as the continuation influence degree of the analysis target person. Therefore, it is possible to determine the continuation influence level of the analysis target person from the number of e-mails determined to be continuous depending on whether the analysis target person exists or not, and calculate the communication analysis index. be able to.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the expandability determination means includes the number of e-mails that are determined to have expandability when the transmission / reception record of the selected analysis subject is deleted, and the transmission / reception record is not deleted. A difference from the number of e-mails determined to be expandable is obtained and output as the expansion influence degree of the analysis target person. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the degree of influence of the analysis subject from the number of e-mails that have been determined to be expanded depending on whether the analysis target person does not exist or if there is an analysis target, and calculate the communication analysis index be able to.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the continuity determination unit deletes the number of e-mails determined to have continuity when the transmission / reception record of the members in the selected analysis target group is deleted, and the transmission / reception record. When the number of e-mails determined to have continuity is not obtained, a continuation influence degree is obtained, and a sum of the continuation influence degrees of all members in the analysis target group is obtained. Is output as the continuous impact level. Therefore, it is possible to determine the continuation impact level of the analysis target group from the number of e-mails determined to be continued depending on whether the analysis target group does not exist or not, and calculate the communication analysis index. be able to.

  In the communication analyzer configured as described above, the expandability determination means includes the number of e-mails that are determined to have expandability when the transmission / reception record of the selected analysis subject is deleted, and the transmission / reception record is not deleted. The difference in the number of e-mails determined to be expandable is determined to determine the expansion impact, and the sum of the expansion impacts of all members in the analysis target group is determined to determine the expansion impact of the analysis target group Is configured to output as Therefore, it is possible to determine the degree of expansion of the analysis target group from the number of emails determined to be expanded depending on whether the analysis target group does not exist or the case where it exists, and calculate the communication analysis index. be able to.

  The communication analysis method of the present invention includes a recording step of recording a transmission / reception history of an electronic mail input / output to / from a mail server, and an electronic mail input / output within a predetermined number of electronic mails to be analyzed with reference to the transmission / reception history or It is determined whether or not there is an e-mail sent by a recipient of the e-mail to be analyzed among e-mails input and output within a predetermined time from the e-mail to be analyzed, and the e-mail to be analyzed And a first determination step for determining whether or not is continuing. Therefore, it is possible to calculate a communication analysis index that allows the receiver who has received the e-mail to be analyzed to determine that the e-mail message has been transmitted to another person. Therefore, it is possible to easily analyze the communication while maintaining the privacy of the constituent personnel who are the subjects of the survey.

  In the communication analysis method, the analysis target e-mail is received among the e-mails input within a predetermined number from the analysis target e-mails or the e-mails input / output from the analysis target e-mails within a predetermined time. It is preferable to have a second determination step of determining whether or not there are a predetermined number or more of e-mails sent by the person and determining whether or not the e-mails to be analyzed are expanding. Therefore, it is possible to calculate a communication analysis index that allows the receiver who has received the e-mail to be analyzed to determine that the e-mail message has been transmitted to a plurality of persons. Therefore, it is possible to easily analyze the communication while maintaining the privacy of the constituent personnel who are the subjects of the survey.

  In the communication analysis method, a third determination step of determining whether or not the e-mail determined to be continued further continues and determining the number of recipients to which the e-mail has been taken over is provided. It is good to have. Accordingly, it is possible to calculate a communication analysis index for determining how many people have passed the e-mail to be analyzed. Therefore, it is possible to easily analyze the communication while maintaining the privacy of the constituent personnel who are the subjects of the survey.

  The program according to the present invention includes a recording process for recording a transmission / reception history of emails input / output to / from a mail server in a computer, and emails input / output within a predetermined number of emails to be analyzed with reference to the transmission / reception history Or, it is determined whether or not there is an e-mail sent by a recipient of the e-mail to be analyzed among e-mails input and output within a predetermined time from the e-mail to be analyzed, and the e-mail to be analyzed A first determination process for determining whether or not the mail continues is executed. Therefore, it is possible to calculate a communication analysis index that allows the receiver who has received the e-mail to be analyzed to determine that the e-mail message has been transmitted to another person. Therefore, it is possible to easily analyze the communication while maintaining the privacy of the constituent personnel who are the subjects of the survey.

  In the above program, the recipient of the email to be analyzed among emails entered within a predetermined number from the email to be analyzed or emails inputted / outputted within a predetermined time from the email to be analyzed It is preferable to determine whether or not there are a predetermined number or more of e-mails transmitted from the computer and to cause the computer to further execute a second determination process for determining whether or not the e-mail to be analyzed is expanded. Therefore, it is possible to calculate a communication analysis index that allows the receiver who has received the e-mail to be analyzed to determine that the e-mail message has been transmitted to a plurality of persons. Therefore, it is possible to easily analyze the communication while maintaining the privacy of the constituent personnel who are the subjects of the survey.

  In the above program, the computer further includes a third determination process for determining whether or not the e-mail determined to be continued is further continued and determining the number of recipients to which the e-mail has been taken over. It should be executed. Therefore, it is possible to calculate a communication analysis index for determining how much the e-mail to be analyzed has been taken over. Therefore, it is possible to easily analyze the communication while maintaining the privacy of the constituent personnel who are the subjects of the survey.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily analyze a communication by outputting an index for analysis while maintaining the privacy of a constituent person who is a survey target.

  Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the embodiment. The present embodiment has a mail server 4 connected to the Internet 2 and a communication analysis device 6. The mail server 4 is installed in an organization to be subjected to communication diagnosis, and includes a transmission server function processing unit 42 having an email transmission function and a reception server function processing unit 44 having an email reception function. . The mail server 4 itself may have a general configuration. Therefore, the transmission mail function and the reception mail function may be realized by separate server devices.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the communication analysis device 6 includes an e-mail transmission / reception storage unit 10 and an e-mail analysis unit 20. The mail server 4 stores electronic mail transmission / reception records. The transmission / reception records are transferred to and stored in the electronic mail transmission / reception storage unit 10. The user ID assigned to each member of the organization as the sender and the receiver is added to the transmitted / received e-mail for user authentication by the mail server 4. The e-mail transmission / reception storage unit 10 uses a user ID, which is an identification symbol of each sender / receiver, as a sender identification symbol or a recipient identification symbol recorded in the transmission / reception record. Of course, information that can identify individual members such as an e-mail address can be substituted even if it is not a user ID. Further, in the present embodiment, both the function of fetching transmission / reception records from the mail server 4 and the function of storing them are realized by the electronic mail transmission / reception storage unit 10, but they may be realized by individual means.

  The e-mail analysis unit 20 analyzes e-mail communication by analyzing the transmission / reception records stored in the e-mail transmission / reception storage unit 10. In FIG. 1, the e-mail transmission / reception storage unit 10 and the e-mail analysis unit 20 are shown to be mounted on one device. However, the units 10 and 20 may be configured to be realized by separate devices. Good.

  FIG. 3 shows an internal configuration of the email analysis unit 20. The e-mail analysis unit 20 uses the work transmission / reception continuous storage unit 21 that extracts and stores the transmission / reception record to be analyzed from the e-mail transmission / reception recording unit 10 and the transmission / reception record stored in the transmission / reception continuous storage unit 21. And a continuity determination unit 22 that determines continuity of communication. With this configuration, it is determined whether communication within the organization has been performed with continuity.

  FIG. 4 shows a data structure of a transmission / reception record taken into the electronic mail transmission / reception storage unit 10 from the mail server 4. One transmission / reception record data is associated with the transmission date and time of the e-mail, the user ID of the sender (hereinafter referred to as sender ID), and the user ID of the receiver (hereinafter referred to as receiver ID). Since a plurality of users can be designated as recipients in the email to be sent, the recipient ID list is shown in FIG.

  The transmission / reception record data is stored in the transmission / reception continuous storage unit 21 in the order of transmission of the e-mail. In this embodiment, the time interval between transmission and reception recording is not taken into consideration. Even if one second later or one week later, if an e-mail is not sent during that time, it is considered as the next transmission. This is to give continuity to interruptions at night or on vacation.

  Next, a continuity determination method by the continuity determination unit 22 will be described. FIG. 5 shows a result of an investigation conducted on a mail log of an analysis target organization (hereinafter referred to as “Company A”) to determine how long a message recipient receives a message after the message is received. The total number of messages is 13922, and the average number of recipients for each message is 1.32. The transmission time is counted by the number of messages on the mail server 4. This is for correcting a time during which no message is transmitted such as nighttime or lunch break. As is apparent from FIG. 5, it can be seen that the recipient often sends within one message from the reception of the message, and the number of messages decreases as the message interval increases.

  Therefore, the relationship between the two messages is defined as follows. The conceptual diagram is shown in FIG. One sheet shown in FIG. 6 represents one message. The circle above it is a member belonging to the organization and indicates a node. At this time, if a recipient of a certain message (first sheet) (node connected to the caller by an arrow (see FIG. 6)) makes a call within a predetermined number of messages, the two messages are related. Yes, we call it continuing.

The procedure for determining continuity will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, the continuity determination unit 22 takes out the record of the email T to be investigated from the transmission / reception record recorded in the transmission / reception continuous storage unit 21 (step S1). Here, it is assumed that the Tth message (T is an arbitrary natural number) received by the mail server 4 is extracted. Next, a recipient list RLIST (T) for this message T is created (step S2).

  Next, the value of the counter K for counting messages is set to 1 (step S3), and it is determined whether or not the sender of the (T + K) th message is in RLIST (T) (step S4). When the originator of the (T + K) th message is RLIST (T) (step S4 / YES), it is determined that the message is continuing and continuation is output (step S7). When the sender of the (T + K) th message is not in RLIST (T) (step S4 / NO), it is determined whether or not the value of K is equal to n (step S5). If it is smaller than n (step S5 / NO), K is set to K + 1 (step S6), and the determination in step S4 is repeated until K becomes n. Even if the value of K is equal to N (step S5 / YES), if the sender of the (T + K) th message is not in RLIST (T) (steps S4 / NO and S5 / YES), the message The disconnection is output on the assumption that there is no continuity (step S8).

  As described above, in this embodiment, it is possible to easily perform continuity determination as an index of communication analysis while maintaining the privacy of the survey target person.

  A second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, the e-mail analyzing unit 20 includes a scalability determining unit 23. Hereinafter, a method for determining the expandability by the expandability determining unit 23 will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 9, the expansibility determination unit 23 receives the selected e-mail T among e-mails input and output by the mail server 4 within a predetermined number (n) from the selected e-mail T. It is determined whether or not there is a plurality of e-mails sent by. That is, it is determined whether or not one transmitted e-mail has been transmitted to a plurality of members by a plurality of recipients who have received this e-mail. For example, when the number of e-mails sent by a plurality of recipients who have received this e-mail T is larger than the number of e-mail T recipients, the message expands. Can be determined.

  The operation procedure of the expandability determination unit 23 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. The expandability determination unit 23 takes out the record of the email T to be investigated from the transmission / reception record recorded in the transmission / reception continuous storage unit 21 (step S10). A first counter for identifying the e-mail T is set to T, and T is set to 1 (step S11). Next, the expandability determining unit 23 creates a recipient list RLIST (T) for the electronic mail T from the transmission / reception record (step S12).

  Next, the value of the second counter K is initialized (K = 1) (step S13). Then, it is determined whether or not the sender of the (T + K) -th message is in RLIST (T). When the sender of the (T + K) th message is in RLIST (T), it is recorded that the message has been continued in the corresponding column of the expandability determination table for determining expandability. FIG. 11 shows the expandability determination table. In the present embodiment, the e-mails for which the expandability is determined are N e-mails whose first counter T is 1 to N (N is an arbitrary natural number), and these N e-mails T It is determined whether or not the recipient of the email T is sending an email within a range of n (n is an arbitrary natural number) (see FIG. 12). Accordingly, when T = N, it is determined whether there is an email sent by the recipient among emails from N to N + n, so that the total range of emails to be investigated is N + n (see FIG. 12). ). For this reason, the expandability determination table also has recording columns 1 to n for each email T to be investigated as shown in FIG. Note that, as shown in FIG. 11, a message in which “1” is written in the recording column indicates that it is determined that the message is continued from the message T.

  Next, it is determined whether or not K is n (n is an arbitrary natural number) (step S15). When the value of K is smaller than n (step S15 / NO), the value of K is incremented by 1 (step S16), and the process of step S14 is performed. This process is repeated until K becomes n.

  Next, when K becomes n (step S15 / YES), the first counter T is compared with N (N is an arbitrary natural number) (step S17). When the first counter T is smaller than N (step S17 / NO), the value of T is incremented by 1, and the processes of steps S14 to S16 are repeated. When the first counter T becomes N (step S17 / YES), the recording in the enlargement determination table is terminated and the enlargement is determined (step S19).

  As shown in FIG. 11, since the expandability determination table includes recording fields 1 to n for each email T to be investigated, “1” is recorded for each email T to be examined. By counting the number, it is possible to determine how many recipients have made outgoing calls after receiving the electronic mail T to be investigated. The expandability determination unit 23 records and outputs the count number of the number of recipients who have made outgoing calls as R for each email T to be investigated (step S20).

  As described above, this embodiment can also easily determine the expansibility as an index of communication analysis while maintaining the privacy of the survey target person.

  Instead of outputting the number of recipients who have received the email T to be investigated, 1 is output when there is a recipient who has made an outgoing call as shown in the flowchart of FIG. S23) If no recipient has made a call, 0 may be output (step S24).

  The configuration of this embodiment is shown in FIG. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 14, the e-mail analysis unit 20 is provided with a takeover number calculation unit 24. The takeover number calculation unit 24 determines whether or not the e-mail that has been determined to be continued further continues, and determines the number of recipients that have taken over the e-mail. For example, in FIG. 15, the receiver B receives the sender A who has transmitted the electronic mail T, and transmits it at T + 2 within the predetermined number of electronic mails n (sender B shown in FIG. 15). Similarly, the receiver C receives the electronic mail T + 2 transmitted by B, and transmits the electronic mail at T + 3 within the predetermined number of electronic mails n (sender C shown in FIG. 15). By detecting the e-mail that continues to the e-mail sent in this way, it is possible to determine how many people have taken over the message (in the example shown in FIG. 15, the message sent by A is B , C, D).

  The operation procedure of the takeover number calculation unit 24 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. The takeover number calculation unit 24 extracts the record of the electronic mail T to be investigated from the transmission / reception record recorded in the transmission / reception continuous storage unit 21 (step S30). A first counter for identifying the electronic mail T is set as T, and T is set to 1 (step S31). Next, the transfer number calculation unit 24 creates a recipient list RLIST (T) of the email T from the transmission / reception record (step S32).

  Next, the value of the second counter K is initialized (K = 1) (step S33). Then, it is determined whether or not the sender of the (T + K) -th message is in RLIST (T). When the sender of the (T + K) th message is in RLIST (T), the value of K at that time is recorded in the takeover recording table U (T).

  Next, it is determined whether or not K is n (n is an arbitrary natural number) (step S35). When the value of K is smaller than n (step S35 / NO), the value of K is incremented by 1 (step S36), and the process of step S34 is performed. This process is repeated until K becomes n.

  Next, when K becomes n (step S35 / YES), the first counter T is compared with N (N is an arbitrary natural number) (step S37). When the first counter T is smaller than N (step S37 / NO), the value of T is incremented by 1, and the processing of steps S34 to S36 is repeated. When the first counter T becomes N (step S37 / YES), the recording to the takeover recording table U (T) is terminated and the takeover number is counted (step S39).

  When the (T + K) th caller is in RLIST (T), the takeover record table U (T) records the value of K when the caller is detected. For example, U (T) = [K = 3, K = 4]. Assume that the value of T is changed to T ′ = T + 3. At this time, when the (T + 3 + K) th sender is in RLIST (T + 3), the value of K at that time is recorded in the takeover recording table U (T + 3). In step S39, the number of takeovers is counted by comparing the takeover recording tables. Since the value of K is recorded in the takeover recording table, if there is a takeover recording table U (T + K) corresponding to T + K, it can be determined that the message is further taken over. The takeover number calculation unit 24 counts the number of takeovers by this procedure, and outputs a count value (step S40).

  In this embodiment, an e-mail analysis period is set in advance, and transmission / reception records for this period are taken out to determine continuity and expandability, and count the number of handovers.

  The procedure of this embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In the following, the procedure for determining the continuity of e-mails transmitted and received during a predetermined period will be described, but the same procedure is used for the scalability and counting of the number of handovers. First, a transmission / reception record of electronic mail transmitted / received by the mail server 4 within a predetermined period set in advance is taken out and stored in the continuous transmission / reception storage unit 21 (step S51). From this transmission / reception record, the number of emails transmitted / received in a predetermined period is counted, and the count value is set to M (step S52). Next, the counter S for counting the e-mail is initialized to 1 (step S53), and the record of the e-mail for determining continuity is taken out from the transmission / reception record. Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the electronic mail to be investigated has continuity according to the flow of FIG. 7 described above (step S54). When the continuity determination process is completed, it is determined whether the determination process has been completed for all e-mails (step S55). If the continuity determination has not been completed for M emails, the counter S is incremented by 1 (step S56), and the continuity determination process is performed (step S54). If it is determined that the continuity determination process has been performed for all M emails (YES in step S55), the number of emails determined to have continuity is counted, and the count result is C. Then, C / M obtained by dividing the count result C by M is output as an output result (step S57).

  In this embodiment, continuity, expandability, and number of takeovers are counted for e-mails sent and received within a predetermined period. A specific survey subject is set and sent by this subject. The e-mail may be calculated for continuity, expandability, and count of number of takeovers. In addition to determining for a specific person, we calculate the continuity, expandability, and takeover counts of all members in the group, and add them to determine the continuity, expandability, and takeover count as a group. The average value within the group of the number of inheritances may be determined by the number of groups.

  In this embodiment, an analysis target is set for e-mails transmitted and received within a predetermined period, and the degree of influence on continuity and expandability when this analysis target does not exist is obtained. First, an analysis target person is set for e-mails transmitted and received within a predetermined period, the transmission / reception record related to the analysis target person is deleted, and continuity when the deletion is performed is obtained. The difference from the continuity when the transmission / reception record of the analysis target person is not deleted is obtained, and the continuous influence degree of the analysis target person is calculated. The expandability can be calculated in the same procedure. In addition, as shown in FIG. 17, if the analysis target person is a sender, the record to be deleted deletes all of the transmission time, the sender ID, and the ID of the recipient who has received this e-mail. If the analysis subject is a recipient, the corresponding ID is deleted from the recipient list.

The continuous influence degree is calculated by the following formula 1.
IC (a) = {C (G) -C (A)} / M (a) (Equation 1)

  In addition, IC (a) shown in Formula 1 indicates the continuous influence degree of the analysis target person a, and M (a) indicates the number of e-mails of the analysis target person a among e-mails within a predetermined period. Further, C (G) indicates the number of e-mails determined to have continuity for all e-mails within a predetermined period, and when the transmission / reception record of the analysis subject a is deleted from the total e-mail number C (G) The number of e-mails C (A) determined to have continuity is subtracted and divided by M (a).

Similarly, the enlargement influence degree can be calculated by Expression 2 shown below.
IE (a) = {E (G) −E (A)} / M (a) (Equation 2)

  IE (a) shown in Expression 2 indicates the degree of expansion influence of the analysis target person a, and M (a) indicates the number of e-mails of the analysis target person a among e-mails within a predetermined period. Further, E (G) indicates the number of e-mails determined to be expandable for all e-mails within a predetermined period, and the transmission / reception record of the analysis subject a is deleted from the total e-mail number E (G). The number of e-mails E (A) determined to be expandable is subtracted and divided by M (a).

  As described above, this embodiment can also easily obtain the continuous impact level and the complete impact level, which are communication analysis indexes, while maintaining the privacy of the survey target person.

  In the present embodiment, the continuation influence degree and the expansion influence degree of all members are obtained for the emails of the members of the predetermined group, and the continuation influence degree and the expansion influence degree of the group are obtained by adding these.

  The continuous influence degree of the group is calculated by the following formula 3.

  Note that IC (G) shown in Expression 3 represents the continuous influence degree of the group G. IC (G) has continuity when the number of e-mails of all members in the group is used as the denominator and the transmission / reception records of each member are deleted from the number of e-mails C (O) determined to be continuity throughout the group. A value obtained by subtracting the number of e-mails C (A) determined to be added to all members in the group is used as a numerator.

  Similarly, the group expansion influence degree can be calculated by the following Expression 4.

  IE (G) shown in Expression 4 indicates the expansion influence degree of the group G. IE (G) is expandable when the number of e-mails of all members in the group is used as the denominator and the sent / received records of each member are deleted from the e-mail count E (O) determined to be expandable throughout the group The value obtained by subtracting the number of e-mails E (A) determined as and adding all the members in the group is used as the numerator.

  As described above, this embodiment can also easily obtain the continuous influence degree and the complete influence degree of the group that is an index of the communication analysis while maintaining the privacy of the survey target person.

  In the present embodiment, when the recipient who has received the e-mail to be analyzed has made a call n times after the e-mail to be analyzed, the reply probability that the recipient has replied n times later is set. Output. FIG. 19 shows the relationship between the number of messages from transmission to reply and the reply probability. In the continuity determination unit 22 and the expandability determination unit 23 shown in FIGS. 3 and 8, such probability distribution data is recorded in advance as a table.

  The continuity determination procedure will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. The procedure until it is determined whether or not the sender of the (T + K) th electronic mail is in RLIST (T) is the same as the flow shown in FIG. 7, and thus the description of the procedure so far is omitted. When the sender of the (T + K) -th e-mail is in RLIST (T) (step S64), the continuity determining unit 22 refers to a pre-registered table and sends a message after K only. A reply probability is output (step S67). If the recipient who has received the e-mail T to be analyzed has not made a call before the mail server 4 receives a predetermined number of e-mails (YES in step S65), a probability of 0 is output (step S68). ).

  Thus, since the reply probability is output according to the number of messages from the transmission to the reply, it is possible to determine how much the message continuity is maintained. In this embodiment, the reply probability is output according to the number of messages from sending to replying, but the reply probability is set according to the delay time from sending the selected email until the recipient sends the email. It can also be output.

  The present embodiment is an embodiment of a program for causing a computer to execute the above-described continuity determination program, completeness determination program, and takeover number calculation program. FIG. 21 shows the configuration of the continuity determination unit 22 shown in FIG. 3, the scalability determination unit 23 shown in FIG. 8, and the takeover number calculation unit 24 shown in FIG. 14 as an arithmetic unit. As shown in FIG. 21, this arithmetic unit includes a ROM 31 that records a program, a CPU 30 that reads a program recorded in the ROM 31 and executes a calculation, a RAM 32 that is used as a work area for the CPU 30, and an I that inputs and outputs data. / O33 is connected on the bus.

  The CPU 30 performs processing according to the program read from the ROM 31 to determine whether there is a continuous e-mail shown in the flow of FIG. Further, processing for determining whether or not there is an expandable electronic mail shown in the flow of FIG. Similarly, processing for calculating the number of inherited emails shown in FIG. 16 is executed. In this way, in this embodiment, the same effect as that of the above-described embodiment can be obtained, and an index that allows simple analysis of communication can be calculated.

  The above-described embodiment is a preferred embodiment of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the time limit for determining whether or not a reply has been made is determined by the number of e-mails transmitted and received by the mail server 4. This is to eliminate as much as possible the influence of the time zone in which the number of outgoing e-mails such as nighttime is reduced. However, the effect of the present invention can be sufficiently obtained even if it is determined whether or not a reply has been made according to the time since the target e-mail was sent. Also, communication can be analyzed more accurately by changing the measurement time and the number of e-mails to be measured between the daytime when the number of e-mails is large and the time when the number of e-mails is small.

It is a figure which shows the communication network by electronic mail. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a mail server 4 and a communication analysis device 6. It is a figure which shows the structure of an electronic mail analysis part. It is a figure which shows the structure of a transmission / reception log | history. It is a figure which shows the relationship between a message interval and a response message. It is a figure for demonstrating the determination method of continuity. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of a continuity judgment part. It is a figure which shows the structure of an electronic mail analysis part. It is a figure for demonstrating the determination method of an expansibility. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of an expansibility judgment part. It is a figure which shows the structure of an expansibility determination table. It is a figure for demonstrating the determination method of an expansibility. It is a flowchart which shows the other process sequence of an expansibility judgment part. It is a figure which shows the structure of an electronic mail analysis part. It is a figure for demonstrating the calculation method of the taking over number. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of a taking over number calculation part. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure which determines the continuity of the email transmitted / received within the predetermined period. It is a figure which shows the state which deleted the transmission / reception log | history of the analysis subject. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the number of messages from transmission to a reply, and a reply probability. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of a continuity judgment part. It is a figure which shows the structure of the processing apparatus which performs a program.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 2 Internet 4 Mail server 6 Communication analyzer 10 E-mail transmission / reception storage part 20 E-mail analysis part 21 Transmission / reception continuous storage part 22 Continuity judgment part 23 Scalability judgment part 24 Takeover number calculation part 30 CPU
31 ROM 32 RAM
33 I / O 42 Transmission server function processing unit 44 Reception server function processing unit

Claims (24)

A transmission / reception recording storage means for recording a transmission / reception history of electronic mail input / output to / from the mail server;
With reference to the transmission / reception history, the analysis target e-mails are included in e-mails input / output within a predetermined number of e-mails to be analyzed or e-mails input / output from the e-mails to be analyzed within a predetermined time. A communication analysis apparatus comprising: continuity determination means for determining whether or not an e-mail sent by a recipient exists and determining whether or not the e-mail message to be analyzed continues.   The continuity determination unit outputs a determination result with continuity when there is at least one e-mail determined to be continued in the e-mail to be analyzed. Communication analyzer.   An email sent by a recipient of the email to be analyzed among emails entered within a predetermined number from the email to be analyzed or emails input and output within a predetermined time from the email to be analyzed 3. The communication analysis apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising expandability determination means for determining whether or not the number of e-mails to be analyzed is expanding and determining whether or not the e-mail to be analyzed is expanding.   2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a takeover number calculating unit that determines whether or not the e-mail determined to be continued is further continued and determines the number of recipients to which the e-mail has been taken over. The communication analyzer according to any one of 1 to 3.   The continuity determination means is the number of e-mails transmitted / received by the mail server between the analysis target e-mail and the reception of the e-mail sent by the recipient, or the analysis target e-mail transmission 5. The communication analysis according to claim 1, wherein a probability of continuing the analysis target e-mail message is output according to a delay time until the e-mail is sent by the recipient. apparatus.   The continuity determination means retrieves the transmission / reception history of the email transmitted / received during a preset analysis target period, determines whether the transmitted / received email has continuity, and the continuity The communication analysis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the number of e-mails having characteristics is calculated.   The expandability determining means takes out the transmission / reception history of the email transmitted / received in a preset analysis target period, determines whether the transmitted / received email has the expandability, and 4. The communication analysis apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the number of e-mails having expandability is calculated.   5. The takeover number calculating means extracts the transmission / reception history of the electronic mail transmitted / received in a preset analysis target period, and calculates the inheritance number for the transmitted / received electronic mail. Communication analysis equipment.   The continuity determining means determines whether or not all the e-mails transmitted by the selected analysis subject have the continuity, and calculates the number of e-mails having the continuity. The communication analysis device according to claim 1.   The expandability determining means determines whether or not all e-mails transmitted by the selected analysis subject have the expandability, and calculates the number of e-mails having the expandability. The communication analysis device according to claim 3.   5. The communication analysis apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the inheritance number calculating means calculates the inheritance number for all electronic mails transmitted by the selected analysis subject.   The continuity determining means determines whether or not all e-mails transmitted by all members of the selected analysis target group have the continuity, and calculates the number of e-mails having the continuity. The communication analysis device according to claim 1.   The expandability determining means determines whether or not all e-mails transmitted by all members of the selected analysis target group have the expandability, and calculates the number of e-mails having the expandability. The communication analyzer according to claim 3.   5. The communication analysis apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the takeover number calculating means calculates the takeover number for all e-mails transmitted by all members of the selected analysis target group.   The continuity determination means determines the number of e-mails that are determined to have continuity when the transmission / reception record of the selected analysis subject is deleted, and the continuity when the transmission / reception record is not deleted. The communication analysis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a difference from the number of e-mails obtained is obtained and output as a continuous influence degree of the analysis target person.   The expandability determining means is determined to have the expandability when the number of e-mails determined to be expandable when the transmission / reception record of the selected analysis subject is deleted, and when the transmit / receive record is not deleted 4. The communication analysis apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a difference from the number of e-mails is obtained and output as an expansion influence degree of the analysis target person.   The continuity determination means includes the number of e-mails that are determined to have continuity when the transmission / reception record of the members in the selected analysis target group is deleted, and the continuity when the transmission / reception record is not deleted. The continuous influence degree is obtained by calculating the difference between the number of e-mails determined to be and the sum of the continuous influence degrees of all members in the analysis target group is obtained and output as the continuous influence degree of the analysis target group The communication analyzer according to claim 1.   The expandability determining means is determined to have the expandability when the number of e-mails determined to be expandable when the transmission / reception record of the selected analysis subject is deleted, and when the transmit / receive record is not deleted A difference between the number of e-mails is obtained to obtain an expansion influence degree, and a sum of the expansion influence degrees of all members in the analysis target group is obtained and output as the expansion influence degree of the analysis target group. The communication analysis apparatus according to claim 3. A recording process for recording a transmission / reception history of emails input / output to / from the mail server;
With reference to the transmission / reception history, the analysis target e-mails are included in e-mails input / output within a predetermined number of e-mails to be analyzed or e-mails input / output from the e-mails to be analyzed within a predetermined time. And a first determination step of determining whether or not an e-mail sent by a recipient exists and determining whether or not the e-mail message to be analyzed continues. .   An email sent by a recipient of the email to be analyzed among emails entered within a predetermined number from the email to be analyzed or emails input and output within a predetermined time from the email to be analyzed 20. The communication analysis method according to claim 19, further comprising: a second determination step of determining whether or not there is a predetermined number or more and determining whether or not the analysis target e-mail is expanding.   4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a third determination step of determining whether or not the e-mail determined to be continued further continues and determining the number of recipients to which the e-mail has been taken over. The communication analysis method according to 19 or 20. A recording process for recording a transmission / reception history of e-mails input / output to / from a mail server on a computer;
With reference to the transmission / reception history, the analysis target e-mails are included in e-mails input / output within a predetermined number of e-mails to be analyzed or e-mails input / output from the e-mails to be analyzed within a predetermined time. A program for determining whether or not an e-mail sent by a recipient exists and executing a first determination process for determining whether or not an e-mail message to be analyzed continues.   An email sent by a recipient of the email to be analyzed among emails entered within a predetermined number from the email to be analyzed or emails input and output within a predetermined time from the email to be analyzed 23. The program according to claim 22, further comprising: causing the computer to further execute a second determination process for determining whether or not the number of e-mails to be analyzed is expanding. Determining whether the e-mail determined to be continued is further continued, and causing the computer to further execute a third determination process for determining the number of recipients to which the e-mail has been taken over. The program according to claim 22 or 23.

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