an invention for creating , sending , and using self - descriptive objects as messages over a network is disclosed . in an embodiment of the present invention , self - descriptive persistent dictionary objects are serialized and sent as messages across a message queuing network . the receiving messaging system unserializes the message object , and passes the object to the destination application . the application then queries or enumerates message elements from the instantiated persistent dictionary , and performs the programmed response . using these self - descriptive objects as messages , the sending and receiving applications no longer rely on an a priori convention or a special - coding serialization scheme . rather , messaging applications can communicate arbitrary objects in a standard way with no prior agreement as to the nature and semantics of message contents .