We’re proud, and a little humbled, to have won the Best Paper at the 29th Australasian Conference on Information Systems for our research into group types on Enterprise Social Networks.

SWOOP Analytics, along with our research partners at The University of Sydney, won the top prize for our analysis into the different types of groups evident in organisations using Enterprise Social Networks (ESN).The research, led by Professor Kai Riemer from the University of Sydney Business School, SWOOP Chief Scientist Dr Laurence Lock Lee, SWOOP CEO Cai Kjaer and visiting scholar from Ulm University, Annika Haeffner, found there were four main types of groups operating in ESNs – broadcast streams, information forums, communities of practice and project teams.

They found classifying these groups will help ESN group leaders and community managers better manage groups within their network.

“We suggest that measurement of group characteristics will allow group leaders to compare their aspiration for what the group intends to become with actual patterns,” the paper says.

The research will allow better management of group activity on ESNs and highlight discrepancies between group aspiration and actual user activity.

Dr Lock Lee said as a research-led company, SWOOP was proud to partner with Sydney University to conduct ground-breaking research into this relatively new technology."

This research not only demonstrates that online groups self-configure into different 'value configurations', but also identifies the metrics with which they can be distinguished,” Dr Lock Lee said.

Read the full paper, Metrics selection for group type identification in Enterprise Social Network (ESN) analytics and learn more about the Australasian Conference on Information Systems.