1 metadata 108 the federation 1 metadata 108 includes a reference to the common metadata block 102 thus the metadata in the common metadata block 102 is included in the federation 1 metadata 108 by reference to the common metadata block 102 for example the federation 1 metadata 108 may include a pointer to explicitly defined metadata in the common metadata block 102 fig1 a further illustrates a second federation federation 2 federation 2 includes organization 3 110 and organization 4 112 a block of federation metadata federation 2 metadata 114 includes metadata such as structure and organization metadata for federation 2 federation 2 metadata 114 includes the metadata in the common metadata block 102 by reference thus fig1 a illustrates one example where metadata is explicitly set forth in one location the common metadata block 102 but is included in metadata for a number of different federations in one embodiment federation metadata included by reference is included by virtue of a reference to a federation identifier identifying a second federation as such the federation metadata of the second federation is applicable to the first federation and included in the first federation metadata an example of this is illustrated in fig1 b fig1 b illustrates an example where federation metadata may be included by reference to an existing federation fig1 b illustrates.