What is "federation"

Federation \Fed`er*a"tion\, n. [Cf. F. f['e]d['e]ration.]

1. The act of uniting in a league; confederation.

2. A league; a confederacy; a federal or confederated government.
   --Burke.

1721, "union by agreement," from French fédération, from Late Latin foederationem (nominative foederatio), noun of action from Latin foederare "league together," from foedus "covenant, league" (see federal).

a. (context Australia English) Of an architectural style popular around the time of federation. n. 1 Act of joining together into a single (l en political) (l en entity). 2 Array of (l en nations) or states that are (l en unified) under one central authority which is elected by its members. 3 Any (l en society) or organisation formed from separate groups or bodies. 4 (context computing telecommunications English) A collection of network or telecommunication providers that offer interoperability.

1. n. an organization formed by merging several groups or parties

2. a union of political organizations [syn: confederation, confederacy]

3. the act of constituting a political unity out of a number of separate states or colonies or provinces so that each member retains the management of its internal affairs

A federation is a state governed under the system of federalism.

Federation may also refer to:

Federation is a collection of short stories written by H. Beam Piper, and edited by John F. Carr. The book was published in 1981 by Ace Books, and again in 1982, 1983 and 1986. Most of these stories take place in the early part of his Terro-Human Future History.

Federation (1994) is a science fiction novel written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. It is a tie-together chronicle that brings the original Enterprise adventures of James T. Kirk close to an encounter with the Enterprise-D adventures of Jean-Luc Picard.

A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions under a central (federal) government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, are typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body. Alternatively, federation is a form of government in which sovereign power is formally divided between a central authority and a number of constituent regions so that each region retains some degree of control over its internal affairs.

The governmental or constitutional structure found in a federation is known as federalism. It can be considered the opposite of another system, the unitary state. Germany, with 16 Bundesländer, is an example of a federation, whereas neighboring Austria and its Bundesländer was a unitary state with administrative divisions that became federated, and neighboring France, by contrast, has always been unitary.

Federations are often multiethnic and cover a large area of territory (such as Russia, the United States, India, or Brazil), but neither is necessarily the case. The initial agreements create a stability that encourages other common interests, reduces differences between the disparate territories, and gives them all even more common ground. At some time, that is recognized and a movement is organized to merge more closely. At other times, especially when common cultural factors are at play such as ethnicity and language, some of the steps in this pattern are expedited and compressed.

A federation is a group of computing or network providers agreeing upon standards of operation in a collective fashion. The term may be used when describing the inter-operation of two distinct, formally disconnected, telecommunications networks that may have different internal structures. The term may also be used when groups attempt to delegate collective authority of development to prevent fragmentation.

In a telecommunication interconnection, the internal modus operandi of the different systems is irrelevant to the existence of a federation.

Joining two distinct networks:

• Yahoo! and Microsoft announced that Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger would be interoperable.

Collective authority:

• The MIT X Consortium was founded in 1988 to prevent fragmentation in development of the X Window System.
• OpenID, a form of federated identity.

In networking systems, to be federated means users are able to send messages from one network to the other. This is not the same as having a client that can operate with both networks, but interacts with both independently. For example, in 2009, Google allowed GMail users to log in to their AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) accounts from GMail. One could not send messages from GTalk accounts or XMPP (which Google/GTalk is federated with—XMPP lingo for federation is s2s, which Facebook and MSN Live's implementations do not support) to AIM screen names, nor vice versa. In May 2011, AIM and Gmail federated, allowing users of each network to add and communicate with each other.