In the TopicQuests Knowledge Gardening context, we use the term Omnipartisan to define an approach to gathering information resources (gardening); we seek all points of view, each of which becomes a discrete information resource to be federated.
In my thesis
proposal, the task was to outline novel ways to actually
federate information resources. The process which evolved in that study is that of
topic mapping. Topic maps are information maps, containers of specific resources called
topics, each of which serves as a representative
proxy for a particular
subject.
The process of federation, in that context, literally entails determining if a new information resource coming to a particular topic map is about a known topic. The topic map asks:
Have I Seen This Before?
That process describes the information technology side of federation processes.
I see the social side of federation processes as a kind of discipline, one which entails remaining mindful of the needs of a Federation (the socio-technological tribe <nic>).