  As individuals communicate, their exchanges form a dynamic network. We
demonstrate, using time series analysis of communication in three online
settings, that network structure alone can be highly revealing of the diversity
and novelty of the information being communicated. Our approach uses both
standard and novel network metrics to characterize how unexpected a network
configuration is, and to capture a network's ability to conduct information. We
find that networks with a higher conductance in link structure exhibit higher
information entropy, while unexpected network configurations can be tied to
information novelty. We use a simulation model to explain the observed
correspondence between the evolution of a network's structure and the
information it carries.
