1. A method for updating an electronic calendar comprising: receiving a user-generated electronic out-of-office message in a natural language in which a time window of absence and at least one alternate named contact are expressed; based on the out-of-office message, with a computer processor: generating a normalized representation of the time window, and generating a structured representation of the out-of-office message which links the alternate contact to the normalized representation of the time window; storing the structured representation of the out-of-office message in a database; and proposing updates for entries in an electronic calendar based on the structured representation.