JP2006260099A - Inter-user relation calculating device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To properly calculate the relation between users associated by electronic communication. <P>SOLUTION: In this inter-user relation calculation device, an electronic mail log storage part 100 holds an electronic mail history, including a transmitter, a recipient, a date, and a size or the like regarding the electronic mails exchanged between the users. A mail analysis part 110 sequentially takes out an electronic mail history entry from the electronic mail log storage part 100, analyzes it, acquires information regarding the transmitter, the recipient, the size, and a broadcast flag or the like of the electronic mail history entry, and sends out the information to a relevance calculation part 120. The relevance calculation part 120 includes a mail transmission/reception number processing part 121, a mail-size processing part 122, a broadcast mail processing part 123, a social-institutional-geographical relevance use processing part 124, and an analysis result totaling part 125, calculates the relevances among the users, on the basis of the number of the transmission electronic mails, and the size or the like received from the mail analysis part 110, and outputs it. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for calculating a relationship between users of electronic communication.

  With the spread of electronic communication in organizations such as companies, various attempts to acquire various management information from the statistical information have been made and proposed. As part of that, it is desirable to acquire relationships between its members in order to operate an organization efficiently or transformatively.

  The following are known as proposals related to the present invention.

  Patent Document 1 proposes a method for visualizing an individual's region of interest using an orthogonal three-dimensional graph, and weights the frequency of data exchange with social bias (colleagues and acquaintances) as a psychological distance. Is adopted. However, since the relationship between individuals is not grasped in the whole including other people, it is considered that the relationship cannot be grasped accurately.

Patent Document 2 proposes a method of visualizing a network model based on a weight given to a link using a network model in which a person is a node and a relationship between people is a link. However, this proposal does not touch on accurately grasping relationships and attributes between people using the history of electronic mail.
JP 9-44470 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 13-298453

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to appropriately calculate the relationship between users related by electronic communication.

  In the present invention, a relationship (also referred to as a relationship value) between users related by electronic communication is appropriately calculated. Specifically, it is preferable to grasp the relationship between users by using the exchange data between individuals and reflecting not only the communication frequency there but also the size, mail broadcast, and social relationship.

In the configuration example of the present invention, in order to calculate the relationship between users (or between groups) from electronic communication,
(1) a calculation means for calculating a relative ratio of an e-mail addressed to A to B as a relationship between a certain user A (sender / recipient) and a certain user B (recipient / sender); ,
(2) Further, a calculation means for calculating a relative ratio occupied by B according to the size (capacity) of the electronic mail handled by A,
(3) Calculation means for calculating a relative ratio occupied by B according to the relative size of the e-mail handled by A;
(4) When B is included in a mail (broadcast mail) sent simultaneously to a plurality of people by A, a calculation means for calculating a relative ratio of B according to the number of people sent simultaneously;
(5) Calculation means for calculating the ratio occupied by B using the relationship between the social roles of A and B, and (6) Calculation of the ratio occupied by B using the physical distance between A and B. And calculating means. By integrating and holding these calculation means (1) to (6), the relationship between users can be grasped in various ways, but these calculation means may be employed individually.

  According to this configuration example, the relationship between users can be accurately grasped in consideration of communication with other users, and more accurate indicators are provided based on the cumulative size and average size of electronic communication. it can. Further, based on the broadcast electronic communication, the social role of the user, and the physical distance, a relationship that more closely matches the actual situation can be obtained.

  Further, the present invention will be described. In addition, although the reference code of the applicable part of the Example shown in FIG. 1 is appended together, this is for the convenience of explanation and is not intended to limit the present invention.

  According to one aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the inter-user relationship calculating device: a history holding means (100) for holding a history of electronic communication; A history extracting means (110) for extracting a history of electronic communication; a second of the electronic communications of the first user based on the history of the electronic communication of the first user extracted by the history extracting means; A ratio calculating means (120) is provided for calculating a ratio of electronic communication related to the user and calculating a degree of the relation between the first user and the second user based on the ratio.

  In this configuration, it is possible to accurately grasp the relationship between users in consideration of communication with other users.

  The “first user” may be a single individual or a group of people. The same applies to the “second user”.

  Electronic communication is typically based on transmission / reception of e-mail messages, but can be basically applied as long as the history can be recorded electronically. For example, communication by a message of an instant message system may be used.

  In addition, based on the electronic communication history of the first user, the ratio of the electronic communication related to the second user in the electronic communication of the first user is calculated. The degree of the relationship between the two users and the first user (not the degree of the relationship between the first user and the second user) may be calculated.

  The relationship between users can be grasped from both viewpoints, and the relationship may be grasped from the viewpoint that it is important to yourself, and the relationship is regarded as important from the other side. You may grasp. Both can be integrated into an integrated relationship.

  The ratio may be calculated based on the number of electronic communication exchanges, may be calculated based on the total size of electronic communication, or may be calculated based on the average size of electronic communication. May be. For example, the size of electronic communication is various, such as email body (excluding header), email body including header, attached document separated from email, total of attached document and email body, etc. You can count on the basis of. The same applies to the average size.

  The ratio may be calculated in relation to electronic communication transmitted from the first user to the second user, or may be calculated based on electronic communication received by the first user from the second user. It may be calculated in relation to each other, or may be calculated by integrating both.

  Moreover, when the said electronic communication is performed with respect to many receivers simultaneously from the 1st sender | transmitter, when calculating the said ratio about the said electronic communication, it is preferable to give a small weight.

  The ratio may be calculated by adding a weight determined based on the social roles of the first user and the second user.

  Further, the ratio may be calculated by adding a weight determined based on a physical positional relationship between the first user and the second user. In this case, the physical positional relationship is typically due to the arrangement of the respective seats of the first user and the second user. Or the said physical positional relationship is based on each affiliation office of the said 1st user and said 2nd user.

  The electronic communication is typically an email message, but is not limited to this.

  The present invention can be realized not only as an apparatus or a system but also as a method. Of course, a part of the invention can be configured as software. Of course, a software product used to cause a computer to execute such software is also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  The above and other aspects of the invention are set forth in the appended claims and are described in detail below using examples.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately grasp the relationship between users in consideration of communication with other users.

  Examples of the present invention will be described below.

  FIG. 1 shows an overall user relationship calculation system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The inter-user relationship calculation system 10 is realized, for example, by installing a program 201 on the server computer 200. The hardware resources and software resources of the server computer 200 cooperate to implement each functional block described below. A user who wants to acquire the relationship between users accesses the server computer 200 from, for example, a client terminal (not shown) and receives the service of the user relationship calculation system 10. Of course, the inter-user relationship calculation system 10 may be realized in a stand-alone computer environment.

  1, the inter-user relationship calculation system 10 includes an e-mail log storage unit 100, a mail analysis unit 110, a relationship calculation unit 120, a user information database 130, and the like. The e-mail log storage unit 100 receives and holds an e-mail history including sender, recipient, date, size, etc. for e-mail exchanged between users from an SMTP server computer (not shown), for example. . The e-mail log storage unit 100 may use the log holding unit of the SMTP server computer. The mail analysis unit 110 sequentially extracts and analyzes the email history entries from the email log storage unit 100 to acquire information such as the sender, recipient, size, and broadcast flag of the email history entry. Information is sent to the relationship calculation unit 120. The relationship calculation unit 120 calculates and outputs the relationship between users based on the information received from the mail analysis unit 110.

  The relationship calculation unit 120 includes a mail transmission / reception number processing unit 121, a mail size processing unit 122, a broadcast mail processing unit 123, a social / institutional / geographic relationship use processing unit 124, and an analysis result totaling unit 125. It is configured to include. The mail transmission / reception number processing unit 121 accumulates the number of mail transmissions or receptions based on the user. The mail size processing unit 122 accumulates the mail size based on the user. The broadcast mail processing unit 123 performs weighting processing on the broadcast mail. The social / institutional / geographic relationship use processing unit 124 performs weighting processing based on the social / institutional / geographic relationship. The analysis result totaling unit 125 is a value accumulated using the mail transmission / reception number processing unit 121, the mail size processing unit 122, the broadcast mail processing unit 123, and the social / institutional / geographic relationship use processing unit 124. To calculate the relevance. The processing of each unit of the relationship calculation unit 120 will be described later with an example.

  The user information database 130 provides the social / institutional / geographic relationship use processing unit 124 with the social / institutional / geographic relationship of the user.

  FIG. 2 shows an overview of the overall processing of this embodiment. In this example, the relationships with other users are calculated for all users.

  The process of FIG. 2 is as follows.

[Step S10]: A transmission user to be counted is set. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S11.
[Step S <b> 11]: A receiving user to be counted is set in relation to a sending user to be counted. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S12.
[Step S12]: An e-mail history entry having the set transmission user as the sender and the set reception user as the receiver is extracted.
[Step S13]: The relationship regarding the transmission user and the reception user set by the method described later is calculated.
[Step S14]: It is determined whether or not all the receiving users to be counted have been checked in relation to the sending user to be counted. repeat.
[Step S15]: It is determined whether or not all transmission users to be aggregated have been checked. If all the sending users have been checked, the process ends. If any of the transmission users remains, the process returns to step S10 to repeat the process.

  As described above, the relationship between all users is calculated and stored in a predetermined storage unit. If a user who desires a relationship search specifies a target user and sends a search request to the inter-user relationship calculation system 10, the corresponding relationship is returned from the inter-user relationship calculation system 10.

  A method of the relationship calculation process S13 in FIG. 2 will be described. In this embodiment, five methods shown in FIGS. 3 to 7 are employed, but other methods may be used. In this embodiment, the relationship may be calculated by each method and the relationship of any method may be output, or only one method may be implemented.

  First, a basic method will be described with reference to FIG. This method is based on the number of e-mail messages. In FIG. 3, the total transmission number X of the target transmission user A is acquired (S20), the total reception number Y received by the target reception user B is acquired (S21), and the target reception user ratio Y / X is calculated. The relationship is output as the relationship between the target transmission user A and the target reception user B (S22).

  Next, an application procedure based on the size of the e-mail will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 4, the cumulative size Size (X) is acquired for the total transmission number X of the target transmission user A (S30), and the cumulative size Size (Y) for the total reception Y received by the target reception user B is acquired. (S31) The target receiving user ratio Size (Y) / Size (X) is calculated and output as the relationship of the target transmitting user A to the target receiving user B (S32).

  Next, an application procedure based on the relative size (average size) of the e-mail will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, the average size Ave (X) is acquired for the total transmission number X of the target transmission user A (S40), and the average size Ave (Y) for the total reception Y received by the target reception user B is acquired. (S41) The target reception user ratio Ave (Y) / Ave (X) is calculated and output as the relationship of the target transmission user A to the target reception user B (S34).

  Next, an application procedure in consideration of broadcast mail will be described with reference to FIG. In this procedure, the number of e-mails and the size are weighted in the procedure of FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 described above. In FIG. 6, an e-mail transmitted from the transmission target user A to the reception target user B is extracted (S50). The number of simultaneous recipients of the target email is acquired (S51). It is confirmed whether the exchange of electronic mail is a broadcast mail (S52). The confirmation may be flagged in advance using the header information of the e-mail and used. If it is not a broadcast mail, no correction is made. In the case of a broadcast mail, the reciprocal of the number of broadcast mails is multiplied as a correction fee. If the number of transmissions is used as a reference, the number of email transmissions 1 is set to 1 / N, and if the size (Size) is used as a reference, Size / N is set (S52, S53).

  According to this procedure, it can be avoided that the relationship is excessively evaluated by the broadcast mail.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 7, an application procedure in consideration of social, institutional, and physical (geographic) relationships will be described. In this case as well, the number of transmissions and the mail size are corrected in a social, institutional, and physical (geographic) relationship, as in FIG. In FIG. 7, an e-mail transmitted from the transmission target user A to the reception target user B is extracted (S60). The relationship between the transmission target user A and the reception target user B is acquired (S61), the correction amount N is determined, and if the number of transmissions is used as a reference, the number of email transmissions 1 is N and the size (Size) is the reference If so, Size × N is set (S62).

  According to this procedure, for example, a large evaluation can be given by exchanging electronic mail with a user who plays an important role in an organization, and a relationship that is useful in terms of organization can be greatly evaluated.

  Next, the processing of the above-described embodiment will be described with specific examples.

  FIG. 8 shows an example of a technique in which the ratio of the number of transmitted mails to each user in the total number of transmitted mails is used as the inter-user relationship value. In the following description, the relationship centering on the user A is considered. In this example, the total number of transmitted mails is 117, and 6, 2, 100, 8, and 1 e-mail are transmitted from the user A to the users B, C, D, E, and F, respectively. The relational value with B is 6 for the number of mails and 6/117 = 0.05.

  FIG. 9 shows an example of a method in which the ratio occupied by the user as viewed from the communication partner is used as the relationship value between users. That is, the ratio of the e-mail sent by the person to the communication partner with respect to the e-mail received by the communication partner is set as the relation value. In this example, each of the users B, C, D, E, and F does not specifically indicate how much e-mail has been received, but the ratio of e-mails transmitted from the user A is shown. . Users B, C, D, E, and F have relational values of 0.3, 0.1, 0.7, 0.1, and 0.1 based on the number of received mails.

  When the recipient B is considered, the relative number of e-mails from the person (including A) who sent an e-mail to this recipient (the number of e-mails sent to B with the total number of e-mails of the sender) Normalized) may be accumulated on the receiving side, and the ratio of the relative number of e-mails of the sender A in the accumulated value may be used. In FIG. 9, this is called a relative value, and the previous relation value is called an absolute value. By using the relative value, it can be determined from the mail form of the other party whether the mail is special to the other party. Here, this is shown as an absolute value. You can reduce the evaluation of mail from people who frequently send mail, and give high evaluation to mail from people who send mail rarely.

  FIG. 10 calculates a relation value based on the number of received e-mails, and basically corresponds to FIG. 8 although there is a difference between whether the reference is reception or transmission. .

FIG. 11A calculates the relation value based on the total size of the transmission e-mails from the user A. In this example, the total value of the exchange mail size of each user is calculated, and the ratio of each user is calculated therefrom. Specifically, six mails are transmitted from A to B, the total size is 10 KB, two mails are transmitted from A to C, and the total size is 50 KB. The number of mails as shown in the figure is also transmitted from A to D, E, and F, and the total size as shown in the figure. Since the total transmitted mail size is 280 KB, the relational value with B is 10/280 = 0.04, and the other relational values are values as shown. Note that the relationship value in FIG. 11A may be referred to as an absolute value in relation to the relative value (average value reference) in FIG. 11B.
In addition, the relative value of the average value reference (ratio of the average size received from A to the sum of the average sizes) is also shown.

  FIG. 11B calculates the relation value based on the average size of the transmission e-mail from the user A. An average value is calculated from the exchange mail size of each user, and a ratio of each user is calculated from the average value to obtain a related value. In this example, six mails are transmitted from A to B, and the average size is 1.7 KB. For other users C to F, the number of mails and the average size are also shown. Since the total of the average sizes of the mails of the users B to F is 130 KB and the average size of B is 1.7 KB, the relational value with B is 1.7 / 130 = 0.01. The relationship values with the other users C to F are calculated in the same manner as shown in the figure. The relationship value of the method of FIG. 11B is also referred to as a relative value because the average value is used as a reference.

  FIG. 12A calculates the relational value based on the cumulative size of user A's received email, and basically there is a difference between whether the reference is reception or transmission, but basically Corresponds to FIG. 11A.

  FIG. 12B calculates the relationship value based on the average size of the received email of the user A. Similarly, although there is a difference between whether the reference is reception or transmission, Corresponds to FIG. 11B.

  FIG. 13A explains the handling of a transmission broadcast mail when the transmission mail is used as a reference. In this example, the broadcast mail is also handled in the same manner as a normal mail. In this example, outgoing mail is used as a reference. A broadcast mail is transmitted from A to B, C, D, and E, while a normal mail is transmitted from A to F. In this case, the total number of outgoing mails is 5, and the relationship value with each of B to F is 1/5 = 0.2. In this example, the number of mails is used as a reference, but the same applies when the mail size is used as a reference.

  FIG. 13B similarly explains the handling of the transmitted broadcast mail. In this example, the broadcast mail is evaluated to be small. E-mails are similarly transmitted from A to B, C, D, and E, and the evaluation is reduced by dividing by 4 which is the number of simultaneous recipients. In this example, the number of mails to be sent is 2, and the number of mails to be sent to B is 1/4, so the relational value with B is (1/4) /2=0.13. The relationship values with the other users C to F are calculated in the same manner as shown in the figure.

  FIG. 14A explains the handling of the received broadcast mail when the received mail is used as a reference, and there is a difference between whether the reference is reception or transmission, but basically FIG. And corresponding.

  FIG. 14B explains another handling of the received broadcast mail when the received mail is used as a reference. Similarly, although there is a difference whether the reference is reception or transmission, the basic This corresponds to FIG. 13B. In this case, for example, the evaluation of a large number of broadcast mails transmitted from office workers can be reduced so that the position of the office employees in the organization does not increase.

  FIG. 15A and FIG. 15B show whether or not correction is performed according to the social role. In FIG. 15A, the relationship value is calculated without considering the social role, and in FIG. 15B, the social role is calculated. The relationship value is calculated in consideration. In FIGS. 15A and 15B, the relationship value is calculated based on the number of transmitted mails. The transmission mail size (absolute value, relative value) may be used as a reference.

  In FIG. 15A, user B is a synchronous employee, user C is a temporary employee, user D is a supervisor, user E is a section manager, and user F is a general manager. In this example, correction according to the role is not performed. For example, the relationship value with the synchronous employee B is 10/26 = 0.38, and the relationship value with the department manager F is 2/26 = 0.08. is there.

  However, there is no psychological burden on the exchange of mail with the synchronous employee, but the exchange of mail with the supervisor has a psychological burden, and it may be better to increase the value of one mail.

  In FIG. 15B, from such a point, the outgoing mail to the manager is evaluated four times, and the outgoing mail to the section manager is evaluated twice. The corrected total number of received mails is 39, the relationship value with the synchronized user B is corrected to a small value of 10/39 = 0.25, and the relationship values with the section manager E and the department manager F are 14/39 = 0, respectively. .36, 8/39 = 0.21 and have been corrected to a large value.

  FIG. 16A and FIG. 16B show whether correction is performed according to social roles based on the number of received mails, and there is a difference between whether the reference is reception or transmission However, it basically corresponds to FIGS. 15A and 15B, respectively.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the above-mentioned Example, A various change is possible in the range which does not deviate from the meaning. For example, in the above-described example, the relationship between individuals is calculated, but it is needless to say that the relationship between individuals and groups and the relationship between groups can be calculated by collecting electronic mails in groups.

  In the above-described example, the relationship value of the predetermined user A with respect to the other user B can be calculated and the relationship centered on the predetermined user can be grasped. It is also possible to integrate the relationship values for the user A as the integrated relationship value between the users A and B. In this case, for example, a human network having a user as a node and a relationship value as a link can be configured, and the relationship can be displayed in a manner as shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 17, the larger the relation value assigned to the link, the smaller the reference distance, and the placement of nodes can be determined by applying a physical model such as a spring system. For example, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-298453 mentioned above as a related patent document can be adopted.

It is a figure explaining the structure of the Example of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the whole operation of the above-mentioned Example. It is a flowchart explaining the detail of the related value calculation process example of the said Example. It is a flowchart explaining the detail of the other related value calculation process example of the said Example. It is a flowchart explaining the detail of the other related value calculation process example of the said Example. It is a flowchart explaining the example which correct | amends broadcast mail in the relationship value calculation process of the above-mentioned Example. It is a flowchart explaining the example which correct | amends based on a social role in the relationship value calculation process of the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of related value processing (reference | standard of the number of transmitted mails) of the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the relational value process example (evaluation on the basis of a transmission partner) of the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of relation value processing (reference | standard of the number of received mails) of the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of related value processing of the above-mentioned embodiment (based on the total of the transmitted mail size). It is a figure explaining the relational value process example (based on a transmission average mail size) of the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of related value processing (based on the total of received mail size) of the above-mentioned embodiment. It is a figure explaining the relational value process example (based on a reception average mail size) of the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of related value processing (what handles transmission broadcast mail without distinguishing) of the above-mentioned example. It is a figure explaining the example of a relational value processing (what distinguishes and handles a transmission broadcast mail) of the above-mentioned example. It is a figure explaining the example of related value processing (what handles received broadcast mail without distinguishing) of the above-mentioned example. It is a figure explaining the example of related value processing (what handles received broadcast mail distinguishing) of the above-mentioned example. It is a figure explaining the example of a relational value processing (thing based on the number of transmission mails without distinguishing a social role) of the above-mentioned example. It is a figure explaining the relational value process example (what distinguishes a social role and makes a reference | standard the number of transmission mails) of the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of a relational value processing (thing based on the number of received mails without distinguishing a social role) of the above-mentioned example. It is a figure explaining the example of relation value processing (what distinguishes a social role and makes a standard the number of received mails) of the above-mentioned example. It is a figure explaining the modification of the above-mentioned Example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Inter-user relation calculation system 100 E-mail log storage part 110 Mail analysis part 120 Relation calculation part 121 Received number processing part 122 Mail size processing part 123 Broadcast mail processing part 124 Social / institutional / geographic relation use processing Unit 125 analysis result totaling unit 130 user information database 200 server computer 201 program

Claims (16)

History holding means for holding electronic communication history;
History extracting means for extracting a history of electronic communication of the first user from the history holding means;
Based on the electronic communication history of the first user extracted by the history extraction means, the proportion of the electronic communication related to the second user in the electronic communication of the first user is calculated, and this ratio And a relationship calculating means for calculating a degree of relationship between the first user and the second user based on the above. History holding means for holding electronic communication history;
History extracting means for extracting a history of electronic communication of the first user from the history holding means;
Based on the electronic communication history of the first user extracted by the history extraction means, the proportion of the electronic communication related to the second user in the electronic communication of the first user is calculated, and this ratio And a relationship calculating means for calculating a degree of relationship between the second user and the first user based on the above.   The inter-user relationship calculation device according to claim 1, wherein the ratio is calculated on the basis of the number of electronic communication exchanges.   The inter-user relationship calculation device according to claim 1, wherein the ratio is calculated on the basis of an accumulated size of electronic communication.   The inter-user relationship calculation device according to claim 1, wherein the ratio is calculated based on an average size of electronic communication.   The inter-user relationship calculation device according to claim 1, wherein the ratio is calculated in relation to electronic communication transmitted from the first user to the second user.   6. The inter-user relationship calculation device according to claim 1, wherein the ratio is calculated in relation to electronic communication received by the first user from the second user.   The ratio is calculated in relation to both electronic communication transmitted from the first user to the second user and electronic communication received by the first user from the second user. 5. The inter-user relationship calculation device according to any one of 5 above.   The said electronic communication is given to a small weight when calculating the said ratio about the said electronic communication, when it is performed with respect to many receivers simultaneously from the 1st sender. The inter-user relationship calculation device described in 1.   The inter-user relationship calculation device according to claim 1, wherein the ratio is calculated by adding a weight determined based on a social role of the first user and the second user.   The inter-user relationship calculation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ratio is calculated by adding a weight determined based on a physical positional relationship between the first user and the second user.   The inter-user relationship calculating apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the physical positional relationship is based on the arrangement of seats of the first user and the second user.   12. The inter-user relationship calculating apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the physical positional relationship is based on a business office to which each of the first user and the second user belongs.   The inter-user relationship calculating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the electronic communication is an e-mail message. A history holding means for holding a history of electronic communication;
A history extracting unit extracting a first user's electronic communication history from the history holding unit;
Based on the electronic communication history of the first user extracted by the history extracting means, the relationship calculating means calculates the ratio of the electronic communication related to the second user out of the electronic communication of the first user. And calculating a degree of relationship between the first user and the second user based on the ratio. History holding means for holding electronic communication history;
History extracting means for extracting a history of electronic communication of the first user from the history holding means;
Based on the electronic communication history of the first user extracted by the history extraction means, the proportion of the electronic communication related to the second user in the electronic communication of the first user is calculated, and this ratio A computer program for calculating the relationship between users, which is executed by a computer to realize a relationship calculation means for calculating the degree of relationship between the first user and the second user based on the above.