A distributed active knowledge and process base incorporates multiple Distributed Object Technology Systems (DOTS) connected over a network, the Internet, or wireless media to allow multiple types of data, processes, and services (system elements) to be created and modified within the same collaborative framework, and thereby permits data to be appropriately mapped to said processes, provides and updates periodically knowledge about available system elements and their values, allows separate systems to negotiate multiple forms of collaboration, and contains sufficiently flexible levels of data security in order to foster online collaboration.