Knowledge discovery in corporate email : the compliance bot meets Enron

Abstract

I propose the creation of a real-time compliance "bot" - software to momentarily pause each employee's email at the moment of sending and to electronically assess whether that email is likely to create liability or unanticipated expense for the corporation. My thesis describes the confluence of historical events making such a product necessary and desirable - increase in corporate regulation, explosive growth of email, acceptance of email as evidence in litigation. The cautionary tale of Enron provides the backdrop for the thesis. The government released hundreds of thousands of Enron management emails and they have become research fodder for those interested in "Knowledge Discovery," a computer science discipline that gleans meaningful information from data otherwise indecipherable due to its sheer size. CEO's and other C-level corporate managers are my intended audience, so I have attempted to counter the weightiness of the technical topics by focusing on the search for readily understandable management headaches such as the loss of productivity due to high participation in the fantasy football pool or the potential for dirty jokes to become evidence in an employment law claim.