Microsoft Research's Netscan analyzes all of usenet in a way that's similar to Christopher Browne's weekly comp.lang.lisp statistics posts.
You see a small amount of trend information; comp.lang.lisp seems busier this month than it was in March. Though pretty much all of that increase can be attributed to the top two threads, the first about Guy Steele's interview in Dr. Dobb's Journal and the second being one of those classic usenet trainwreck threads involving the chronically insane.
The image above is from their attempts to find “mavens” [via Ross Mayfield], or people who answer people who don't answer people. Sounds cool, though I think in c.l.l we already know who the people who answer people are. Which immediately leads me to think that not all of those people are mavens, some of them just like to spout, and I hope they consider that in their analysis as well.
Posted by jjwiseman at April 29, 2005 09:37 AM