Techniques for analyzing data from multiple sources

1. A computer-implemented method of detecting violations of policies of an organization, comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, external information from one or more external information sources;

specifying one or more parameters for identifying the external information;

measuring a rate of receipt of the received external information, the rate of receipt indicative of a particular amount of the external information being received from the one or more external information sources;

when the rate deviates from a range of acceptable values, adjusting at least one of the one or more parameters to modify the rate of the received external information;

receiving internal information from one or more internal information sources;

storing the external information and the internal information in one or more data stores that collectively implement one or more ontologies;

applying one or more logical conditions to the external information and the internal information in the one or more data stores;

determining a conclusion based on application of the one or more logical conditions, the determined conclusion including at least one detected policy violation; and

providing the conclusion.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the external information includes:

receiving first external information from a first external information source;

receiving second external information from a second external information source; and

converting at least one of the first external information and second external information to a common format.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising converting the received internal information to the common format.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more external information sources includes a website offering for consumption an item purporting to be from the organization.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein applying the one or more logical conditions to the external information and internal information includes performing a statistical analysis on the external information and internal information to determine one or more statistical measurements relating at least a portion of the external information to at least a portion of the internal information, and wherein the one or more conditions are based at least in part on the one or more statistical measurements.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more statistical measurements includes a particular statistical measurement that relates one or more transactions of the organization with one or more activities of a vendor of the organization.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for causing at least one computer system to detect policy violations for an organization, the instructions comprising:

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to receive external information from one or more external information sources;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to specify the one or more parameters for identifying the external information;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to measure a rate of receipt of the received external information, the rate of receipt indicative of a particular amount of the external information being received from the one or more external information sources;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to adjust at least one of the one or more parameters to modify the rate of the received external information when the rate deviates from a range of acceptable values;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to receive internal information from one or more internal information sources;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to store the external information and internal information in one or more data stores that collectively implement one or more ontologies;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to apply one or more logical conditions to the external information and internal information in the one or more data stores;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to determine a conclusion based on application of the one or more logical conditions, the determined conclusion including at least one detected policy violation; and

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to provide the conclusion.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions that cause the at least one computer system to receive external information includes:

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to receive first external information from a first external information source;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to receive second external information from a second external information source; and

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to convert at least one of the first external information and second external information to a common format.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that cause the at least one computer system to convert the received internal information to the common format.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the one or more external information sources includes a website offering for consumption an item purporting to be from the organization.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions that cause the at least one computer system to apply the one or more logical conditions to the external information and internal information include instructions that cause the at least one computer system to perform a statistical analysis on the external information and internal information to determine one or more statistical measurements relating at least a portion of the external information to at least a portion of the internal information, and wherein the one or more conditions are based at least in part on the one or more statistical measurements.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the one or more statistical measurements includes a particular statistical measurement that relates one or more transactions of the organization with one or more activities of a vendor of the organization.

13. A system for detecting policy violations for an organization, comprising:

one or more communications devices collectively operable to receive external information from one or more external information sources and internal information from one or more internal information sources;

a data store that receives at least a portion of the internal information and at least a portion of the external information, that transforms said at least a portion of the internal information and said at least a portion of the external information to a common schema that implements an ontology; and

one or more computing devices comprising at least one processor configured to execute computer executable instructions to collectively at least:

specify one or more parameters for identifying the external information;

measure a rate of receipt of the received external information, the rate of receipt indicative of a particular amount of the external information being received from the one or more external information sources;

adjust at least one of the one or more parameters to modify the rate of the received external information when the rate deviates from a range of acceptable values;

cause the one or more communications devices to receive the external information according to the adjusted parameters;

apply one or more logical conditions to contents of the data store, the contents including said at least a portion of the internal information and said at least a portion of the external information;

determine a conclusion based on application of the one or more logical conditions, the determined conclusion including at least one detected policy violation; and

provide the conclusion.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the ontology is based at least in part on a plurality of user-defined semantic objects and a plurality of user-defined relationships among the semantic objects.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the one or more information sources includes a website offering for consumption an item purporting to be from the organization.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the one or more computing devices are collectively operable to apply the one or more logical conditions to the external information and internal information by performing a statistical analysis on said at least a portion of the external information and said at least a portion of the internal information to determine one or more statistical measurements relating at least a portion of the external information to at least a portion of the internal information, and wherein the one or more conditions are based at least in part on the one or more statistical measurements.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the one or more statistical measurements includes a particular statistical measurement that relates one or more transactions of the organization with one or more activities of a vendor of the organization.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more parameters specify at least one logical condition of the one or more logical conditions for receiving the external information from the one or more external information sources.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 , further comprising adjusting the at least one logical condition specified by at least one of the one or more parameters to modify the rate of the received external information when the rate deviates from a range of acceptable values.