The solution

Three application layers

Commun Axiom is made of three main segments:

 

  • A central part is hosted on the cloud. This portion is essentially invisible to the user, it is the heart of the platform. 
  • A user-exposed but web-based portion. This portion allows for account management as well as support for extended features adding flexibility to the platform.
  • A locally hosted portion whose purpose is to allow users to manage their data and ensure proper management of data sources before sharing with external partners. 

 

In addition to these three application layers, an Open ID Connect (OIDC) service is implemented to ensure the security of activities taking place on the platform.

 

There are three applications in the ecosystem that are visible and distinct to users:

 

  • The Accounts application
  • The Commons Client
  • The Let's Agree application

 

The other applications are mainly for the use of the platform administrators or are simply services that are accessed by the applications to ensure the proper functioning of the software.

Accounts

As its name suggests, this is the application that allows you to create your Comax profile. It supports the creation of new accounts, authentication through external providers as well as the integrated management of shared clients administered by the current account. It also manages partner groups and creates organizational accounts to support scenarios that meet the needs of larger companies.

 

In addition to providing user account management functions, it also includes a series of restricted access screens allowing the administration of the Commun Axiom ecosystem by allowing the creation of security profiles adapted to the different applications hosted on the network.

Commons

Commons consists in two applications installed in the user's local network. 

 

  • The Commons Client

    The client is installed locally on the users' computers to allow them to configure and manage the data sources. It is a visual interface that allows the administration of the functions performed by the Agent. 

  • The Commons Agent

    Configured by the client, the agent automates the data source management and sharing functions. It provides seamless communication with the Commun Axiom network, enabling continuous management of local and remote data.

Let's agree

If the platform as a whole aims to facilitate collaboration and data transfer between partners, Let's Agree aims to help users and organizations implement an inter-organizational governance strategy in their data management.

 

The application allows the documentation of standardized models of dataset sharing conditions called artifacts. These conditions can be divided into two main categories:

  • Governance Artifacts

    These artifacts affect ingestion constraints, transformation constraints, and limitations imposed on the data before it can be shared. Essentially, they ensure that all of the organization's governance rules have been checked before a specific dataset can be shared. These constraints do not prevent data ingestion, but rather impose rules before data is shared.

  • Licence Artifacts

    These artifacts impose constraints, limitations and obligations on partners who wish to obtain a copy of the dataset. These constraints enable the selection of a particular license for the dataset or the implementation of certain reciprocal obligations related to the data, such as sharing the results of work done with the data.

 

Overall, these artifacts enable the implementation of an inter-organizational data sharing governance strategy.

Comax Chat

Chat opens up opportunities for exchanges between partners. In addition to instant messaging, there are various opportunities to initiate conversations on different concrete topics such as projects, datasets or even participate in a group discussion on a negotiation in Let's Agree application. Rather than a monolithic application, this application extends several other applications of the platform. 

Orchestrator

The Orchestrator is a decentralized application that allows communication between Commons clients. It allows the exchange of data between partners without having to open inbound ports in the users' infrastructure. Although the Orchestrator is not designed for long-term data hosting, it allows temporary caching of datasets for quick dissemination purposes. This saves connection, bandwidth and user resources. A portion of the authorized data is also transferred to the Orchestrator to facilitate the search for datasets and projects. The Orchestrator is deployed with a decentralized approach to facilitate data distribution by geographically locating information and distributing it across nodes to ease the load.

Ledger

Ledger is a blockchain application. Its purpose is to track critical data. It contains the digital assets of partners and the links associated with their users. The assets supported by Ledger are the following:

 

  • Datasets

    In the form of a data stream, a specific source defined in the Sharing application is identified and associated with its owner.

  • The terms and conditions and licenses Agreements

    These conditions are defined in Let's Agree application but must be saved on the blockchain in order to be associated with the datasets. These associations alter the functioning of Commons and impose acceptance steps to download datasets from partners.

  • Proof of acceptance of modalities

    To avoid having to repeat the steps of accepting sharing terms, proofs of acceptance of terms are recorded on the Ledger platform. This ensures that users are aware of the limitations and obligations associated with the dataset they are downloading.

 

The Ledger is not an application that directly visible to users. Nevertheless, it persists critical data and can expose it on a need to need basis. 

Transform

The transformation module is an application that allows the encapsulation and delivery of transformation functionalities applicable to the datasets of the Commons application. These transformations are executed locally in the Commons application in order to ensure the protection of confidential information and to guarantee compliance with the governance procedures provided by Let's Agree. The following are some of the transformations functions:

 

  • Data conversion (JSON to CSV)
  • Anonymisation (unidirectional hashing, column removal, data grouping)
  • Geographical categorization

 

The application is managed by the Comax administration team and facilitates the expansion of data transformation functionality without having to update the whole Commons application.

Central Api

The Api Central is a backend service. This means that it is not visually exposed to users. It is used to centralize certain key functionalities that allow the validation and authorization of certain operations on the platform. It also provides information critical to the proper functioning of applications exposed to users. Thus the majority of other applications depend on the Central Api. The central aspect of the api is related to its functional position within the ecosystem. In fact, several instances of the api can be hosted side by side to ensure the high availability of the platform.