This paper proposes the creation of an architectural layer for integration of all the resources and members participating in a given collaborative activity into a unified framework which is referred as the Collaborative Environment Integration Layer (CEIL). This layer is considered a necessary step for integrating with open standards all the collaborative resources or components into a tightly coupled collaborative environment which implements activity orientation. The proposal considers two architectural elements. The first element is the Collaborative Environment Description Language (CEDL), which is the formal language for describing all the elements and associated parameters relevant for modeling and managing a Collaborative Environment. The second one is the Collaborative Environment Management Interface (CEMI), which is the unified interface which provides uniform management and configuration of the collaborative components of an environment. This layer includes accurate descriptions of the virtual organizations associated to collaborative activity, including participants, roles, rights, hierarchies, etc, being able to model the variety of existing virtual organization models.
