Many researchers have demonstrated that the organizational design employed by an agent system can have a significant, quantitative effect on its performance characteristics. A range of organizational strategies have emerged from this line of research, each with different strengths and weaknesses. In this article we present a survey of the major organizational paradigms used in multi-agent systems. These include hierarchies, holarchies, coalitions, teams, congregations, societies, federations, markets, and matrix organizations. We will provide a description of each, discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and provide examples of how they may be instantiated and maintained. This summary will facilitate the comparative evaluation of organizational styles, allowing designers to first recognize the spectrum of possibilities, and then guiding the selection of an appropriate organizational design for a particular domain and environment.

This paper provides a synthesis of ontology research and one of its most significant application areas, the business discipline of Knowledge Management (KM). Despite the fact such a synergy is in great demand between consumers and suppliers of ontology technology, there is a lack of understanding on one side and a lack of realism on the other. Due to the lack of communication and understanding between ontology research and applied KM there is the danger that mainstream KM will remain neutral to ontologies, while research develops as a largely unguided exploration.