Abstract
This paper presents a mechanism to maintain metadata in a decentralized way, in order to flexibilize open electronic business. By defining instances as sets, data models can be manipulated in operational systems, together with those instances. Using the UN/Cefact Core Components Technical Specification as a framework, decentralized developed metadata becomes negotiable. The presented mechanism removes bottlenecks of the scalability of open B2B systems.
The copyright for articles is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to DCMI for publication in the electronic and print proceedings. By virtue of their appearance in this open access publication, articles are free to be used with proper attribution for educational and other non-commercial purposes. Other uses may require the permission of the author(s).