Government Watchdog: Software That Sniffs

WHEN most people fight city hall, they attend meetings, circulate petitions or file lawsuits. When Murray Craig, a retired programmer, fought his town council in British Columbia, he picked up his old craft and wrote code. In the end, he created software that his company claims can ''detect government corruption in five minutes.'' The software, called Minutes-N-Motion, applies artificial intelligence to the problem of finding needles in the haystacks of government documents. While standard document-searching software can pinpoint keywords, Mr. Craig's program makes connections to draw conclusions on issues like whether a public official may have acted on a matter presenting a conflict of interest.