1. An electronic out-of-office message analysis method comprising: receiving an electronic out-of-office message generated by a user in a natural language, the electronic out-of-office message including a time window of absence and an alternate named contact; with a computer processor, generating a normalized representation of the time window by identifying and normalizing a temporal expression from text content of the user's out-of-office message and identifying the alternate named contact by recognizing named entities from the text content of the user's out-of-office message and cross-referencing the recognized named entities with a named entity directory for identifying an alternate named contact corresponding to one of the recognized named entities; generating a structured representation of the user's out-of-office message, the structured representation including a reference to the user, a reference to the identified alternate named contact, and the normalized representation of the time window; using a database that stores structured representations of out-of-office messages of other users, determining whether the user's out-of-office message conflicts with an out-of-office message of the identified alternate named contact by comparing the normalized representation of the time window included in the structured representation of the user's out-of-office message with a normalized representation of a time window included in a structured representation of the identified alternate named contact's out-of-office message; and if a conflict is detected, notifying the user of the conflict.
1. An electronic out-of-office message analysis method comprising: receiving an electronic out-of-office message generated by a user in a natural language, the electronic out-of-office message including a time window of absence and an alternate named contact; with a computer processor, generating a normalized representation of the time window by identifying and normalizing a temporal expression from text content of the user's out-of-office message and identifying the alternate named contact by recognizing named entities from the text content of the user's out-of-office message and cross-referencing the recognized named entities with a named entity directory for identifying an alternate named contact corresponding to one of the recognized named entities; generating a structured representation of the user's out-of-office message, the structured representation including a reference to the user, a reference to the identified alternate named contact, and the normalized representation of the time window; using a database that stores structured representations of out-of-office messages of other users, determining whether the user's out-of-office message conflicts with an out-of-office message of the identified alternate named contact by comparing the normalized representation of the time window included in the structured representation of the user's out-of-office message with a normalized representation of a time window included in a structured representation of the identified alternate named contact's out-of-office message; and if a conflict is detected, notifying the user of the conflict. 8. The method according to claim 1 , further including: updating scheduled events on a user calendar which coincide with the normalized representation of the time window included in the structured representation of the user's out-of-office message.