Federation (information technology)

Okay, imagine you have a group of friends who all want to play together. But not all of them have the same toys. Some have Lego blocks, others have dolls, and some have crayons. If you want everyone to play together, you need to find a way to share the toys.

That's kind of what happens with computer systems. Different organizations, businesses, or government agencies all have their own computer systems, and they need to share information with each other. But they often use different types of computer systems, databases, and software.

Federation is a way for different computer systems to work together and share information, kind of like your friends sharing toys. It's a way to make sure everyone can access the information they need, even if they use different types of computer systems.

For example, let's say you're trying to plan a big party that involves several different organizations. You need to know how many people are coming, what kind of food they want, and what activities they would like. Each organization has their own computer system that holds some of this information.

With federation, you can create a system that allows all these different computer systems to talk to each other and share the necessary information. That way, you can easily see how many people are coming, what kind of food they want, and what activities they would like, without having to manually collect all that information from each organization.

So, federation is basically a way to make sure everyone can work together and share information, even if they use different types of computer systems.