In a distributed learning environment, the development of learning objects is a participative task. We consider learning objects as knowledge pieces, which are subject to the management processes of acquisition, delivery, creation and production. A multiple‐tier architecture for participative knowledge production tasks is introduced, where knowledge‐producing agents are arranged into knowledge domains or marts, and a distributed interaction protocol is used to consolidate knowledge that is produced in a mart. Knowledge consolidated in a given mart can be in turn negotiated in higher‐level foreign marts. The proposed architecture and protocol are applied to coordinate the authoring of open e‐book packages as learning objects by a distributed group of authors.