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Most federations need agreements on legal and operational agreements. There are different cooperation models that define how control over policy, governance and membership is distributed.

Levels of cooperation

For the purpose of this classification the relationships in federations are organized in a legal framework, common operating rules and technical standards. 

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Common Operating Rules (COR) set the technical, operation and governance rules for participants in a federation.

Model definitions

Liberty

Liberty describes 3 different organizational models (Liberty Legal Framework Chapter 3)

• Centralized model: A single founder sets the COR, and contracts individually with each other Member.
• Consortium model: A small number of founders form a consortium via a multi-party contract that sets COR.
• Collaborative model: A group of founders forms an entity that establishes COR. Parties have some proportional representation in that entity.

TSCP

TSCP added to 2 more models (TSCP - Federation Models - v1_01.pdf)

• Bilateral Model: As an extension of bilateral existing business relationship participants make compliance with the operating rules legally binding. A separate authority, with representation from the users of the COR, is established to maintain the COR.
• Third Party Assurance Model: Identity Providers (discussed below) work with a third party certification authority to attain accreditation of their compliance with the COR. Relying parties (discussed below) and Identity Providers use their existing business contracts much like the Bilateral Model. The one additional contractual requirement in this model is for the Relying Party to obligate the Identity Provider to hold said accreditation and maintain it in good standing for the duration of their contractual relationship.

Kantara Cooperation Models

There are 2 major factors driving cooperation models: Control on a legal level and complexity in managing relationships.

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To deal with complexity operational and governance rules are standardized and outsourced to third parties. This can be applied to any cooperation model, so it is not necessary to mix this with the legal level.

Legal Model mapping