Of networks, interactions and agents: an approach for social network analysis

In the modern office environment, workers use computers, networks and various software applications to allow them to work together. Measuring and understanding how effectively people work together in the performance of tasks can be used to assess the appropriateness of the tools they are using for collaborative work or the effectiveness of their work environment in general. In this paper, we describe an approach for determining how people interact together in the performance of computer-mediated tasks. We also provide the background for this work and some caveats concerning its application.