13. 3
billion
Reported enron
revenue in
dollars, 1996
Reported enron
revenue in
dollars, 2000
Information flow
reveals the dirt
enron e-mail messages had
different patterns when illicit
By Rachel Ehrenberg
Political thrillers that portray a “web
of corruption” get it all wrong, at least
according to an analysis of e-mails
between Enron employees. The flow
of the famously corrupt corporation’s
electronic missives suggests that dirty
dealings tend to transpire through a
sparse, hub-and-spoke network rather
than a highly connected web.
Enron employees engaged in both
legitimate and shady projects conveyed
information much differently when
their dealings were illicit, organizational
theorist Brandy Aven of Carnegie Mel-
lon University in Pittsburgh reported
June 1. The distinction is visible in the
network of e-mails among employees,
which takes the shape of a central hub
and isolated spokes when content is cor-
rupt, rather than a highly connected net
of exchanges.
Enron e-mails about legitimate projects
were reciprocal and shared widely
(left), but e-mails about an illicit project
reveal a sparse network (right).
is crucial, said Ramakrishna Akella, an
expert in information management at
the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Much of network modeling relies on
statistics and algorithms that too often
ignore what’s actually being exchanged, he
said. “Mining content is very insightful.”
That the sneaky behavior employed to
cover the corrupt innovations at Enron
might have been revealed just by diagramming who was e-mailing whom suggests
that the structures of social networks
might help investigators identify electronic dens of intrigue, such as terrorist
communication networks, Aven said.
B. Aven
Apple product fever
Mapping the contagious spread of
Apple products in a communication
network reveals that Macolytes constitute a “social network monster.” Using
datasets from the telecommunications
provider Telenor, Pål Roe Sundsøy of
the norway-based company and colleagues examined user adoption of
the iPhone, the iPad 3G, a videophone
product and the Doro handset, a cell
phone favored by the elderly. The team
found that people are 14 times more
likely to have an iPad if they have
one friend who has one. With two
iPad friends, that probability jumps to
41 times more likely and with three
friends, to 96, Sundsøy reported May
31. Doro users, however, were not
highly linked. — Rachel Ehrenberg
Twitter’s a lousy soothsayer
If you’re ditching your crystal ball
for the oracle of Twitter, think again.
Despite analyses suggesting that the
volume and content of tweets can pre-
dict the outcome of political elections,
research using the same techniques
finds that the social media tool is
more like a hazy Magic 8 Ball. Predic-
tions of six 2010 Senate race winners
based on Twitter chatter volume and
sentiment were correct only half the
time, eni Mustafaraj of Wellesley Col-
lege reported June 1. Manipulation of
social media by spammers and propa-
gandists and the skewed demograph-
ics of tweeters are probably to blame,
she says. With better sampling and
algorithms, mining Twitter may one day
provide more meaningful information.
— Rachel Ehrenberg
Senate’s super six
A gang of six wielded power in the
U.S. Senate even before two news-making gangs of six united to pass
legislation on health care and the
debt. Researchers from Stony Brook
University in new York designed a
computer analysis that sniffs out
influence in social networks and used
it to find that there were six super-influential senators in the 110th Congress, which spanned January 2007
to January 2009. When six particular
senators voted yes (Bennett, R-Utah;
Sessions, R-Ala.; enzi, R-Wyo.; Kerry,
D-Mass.; Rockefeller, D-W.va.; and
Lautenberg, D-n.J.), their collective
influence overwhelmed their network
and the legislation always passed,
Mohammad Irfan reported May 31.
—Rachel Ehrenberg
www.sciencenews.org
July 2, 2011 | SCIENCE NEWS | 9
