Introduction: CO versus COU
Within the COmanage terminology, there has been some confusion regarding the difference between a Collaborative Organization (CO) and a Collaborative Organization Unit (COU). This document seeks to clarify how those two concepts differ and why a COU is more than just a group. In short, a CO is the parent organization, and the COU are the departments and working groups covered to some extent by the policies and procedures of the CO. It is the concept of groups combined with workflows, assurance levels, the management of data and processes at different levels.
CO Definition
CO: A collection of people collaborating together with a common workflow for adding additional collaborators and with common policies for vetting the identities of collaborators. Virtual organizations are one possible form of Collaborative Organization. A CO provides the essential IT infrastructure supporting collaborations between people so that the traditional limitations of localized applications may be overcome.
COU Definition
COU: The COU is an optional construct to allow you to define an organizational structure within a CO. (e.g. a self-contained collection or department within a CO; a collection of privileges within a CO). The workflow for enrolling people may have details specific to a COU.
If you have an organization with common goals and common policies, and yet within that understanding you have unique requirements that the different groups will have different paths to joining and participating in those groups, you have a CO that contains COU. If you have one, common set of policies that define how individuals are added or removed from the CO, then you do not have COU even though you may have groups for simple access control.
A CO versus a COU use case
LIGO is a virtual organization with a concrete goal (discovering gravitation waves) and specific large equipment (the detectors) to help reach that goal. LIGO, however, is not a uniform, flat organization. Within LIGO, there are several smaller organizations. These smaller organizations have specific needs regarding how new people join in their groups, and yet, these smaller organizations all have something in common - the parent organization of LIGO, where access to the equipment and the data is controlled, where agreements may be signed with new organizations wanting to be a part of (or a partner of) LIGO.
In the diagram below, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration is a CO. It contains the default identity management system for the entire CO. Within the LSC, there are COU with very specific on-boarding and off-boarding policies, unique access controls, and so on. The largest COU are GEO600 and the LIGO Labs. Within the COU are smaller, nested COU that take their parent COU's policies where their own are not defined.
