  We propose a novel method for finding the most innovative people in an
organization, using email to analyze structure and dynamics of the
organization's online communication. To illustrate our approach, we analyzed
the email archive of 2000 members of the R&D department of a US multinational
company. We use metrics of social network analysis extended with meta-data of
interaction dynamics to calculate features for individual employees: their
network positions, messages sent and received, pings to others and response
times. We find a distinction between innovation group leaders and subject
matter experts focused on publishing papers and patents. Innovation
administrators have a higher number of direct contacts, are more committed in
conversations and receive more messages than they send. We also found
significant differences between innovators oriented towards internal awards and
innovators more concerned with external recognition of their work.
