Quick note:you can click on all of these images and they zoom up all cool-like so you can get a better look

Using NodeXL,  a super-cool plugin for Microsoft Excel, you can (relatively) easily graph the relationships you have with the people you swap emails with in Microsoft Outlook.

NodeXL’s supercoolness is secondarily amplified by it’s cost and ease-of-use.  You can download it here.  The plug-in adds network graphs to the pies, bars, lines and other standard graphs we all know and love.  On the email part – NodeXL leverages the index that supports search in Outlook and aggregates the relationships represented between the From/To fields, and if you so desire, the To/CC and To/BCC lines.

Here’s my full universe –

As quick example, I’ve sectioned out the bits that are blue above in the graph below.

I’m an analyst and am directly connected to an account manager here at work with whom I exchange many mutual emails in a direct from/to fashion.  You can see from the big blue arrow pointed from the account manager to me that most of this communication is one way…

The account manager in turn is connected to other people on the client side – emails I’ve been CCed on to stay in the loop – but folks with whom I have not had the old from/to.

Have a wack at it yourself!

-Sean