1. A method for use in a computer system for responding to received electronic messages, the method comprising: upon receipt of an incoming electronic message in a computer system, accessing meta information stored in the computer system that identifies a first pre-selected class of a plurality of classes of stored fact information; retrieving a portion of the stored fact information that is a member of the first pre-selected class; and storing the retrieved portion of the stored fact information in an electronic file that is associated with the incoming electronic message such that a rule for processing the incoming electronic message can be applied to the retrieved portion.