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Abstract. Waste management is on top of the political agenda globally as a high priority environmental issue, with billions spent on it each year. This paper proposes an approach for the disposal, transportation, recycling and reuse of waste. This approach incorporates the notion of Request Based Virtual Organizations (RBVOs) using a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and an ontology that serves the definition of waste management requirements. The populated ontology is utilized by a Multi-Agent System which performs negotiations and forms RBVOs. The proposed approach could be used by governments and companies searching for a means to perform such activities in an effective and efficient manner.

In today’s highly competitive and rapidly changing environment, e-businesses constantly have to modify their business processes, i.e. the flow of documents and tasks in a business also known as workflow. More flexible Workflow Management Systems are required to support these constantly changing processes. In this research a platform independent architecture for the design of e-workflow systems is illustrated. The architecture includes an information pool, namely a Workflow Pattern Repository, which contains patterns, which are repeatable solutions to reoccurring problems, in order to make the system more apt to change and assist the workflow designer/user in defining workflows faster and more accurately. The patterns in the repository are in the form of UML activity diagram templates. A straightforward input format for storing patterns in the repository is provided along with an example of its practical application.