A Communication Framework Towards Flexible Associations of Business entities within Evolving environments

The Internet and its manifestations, such as electronic commerce or in general network communication between different group sof interest (i.e., agents) have become indispensable for many of us. To adequately use the ever increasing amount of data, attempts are being made to extend data processing from a merely lexical view towards more complex, but equally important, multi-level view, including meaning and/or context (e.g., DAML, Web Services). The goal of this paper is to introduce a formal framework, apt to model communications from such a multi-level perspective. Therein, we discuss fundamental ideas of communication, such as agents involved and their respective structure. We integrate the concept of an agent’s adaptive behaviour in order to assure a high degree of understanding. The framework is then illustrated using practical examples where we briefly present its usefulness and how it may be further developed.