1. A method for updating an electronic calendar comprising: receiving an electronic mail message in a natural language in which a change in role is expressed; with a natural language processor implemented by a computer processor, parsing the electronic mail message using a set of predefined phrases that are indicative of a role change, the predefined phrases relating to at least one of an announcement, a promotion, and a reorganization, and automatically detecting the change in role expressed by one of the predefined phrases within the parsed electronic mail message, and optionally also providing for detecting at least one of a job title and a job location; storing the change in role in a contacts database within a client computer in communication with the computer processor; searching entries already scheduled in a client's electronic calendar for meetings, wherein the entries are stored in a remote calendar database; for each meeting, comparing the participants of the meetings with each person involved in the change in role in the contacts database; and for each person involved in the change in role that also appears as a participant of a given meeting, proposing an update to an entry in the electronic calendar that corresponds to the meeting.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising for a person involved in the change in role, identifying, from the text of the electronic mail message or an attached document, a former job title; a new job title; and another person that now has the former job title.