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Organization-Based Data Sharing

Askalot supports configurable data sharing within organizations through the sharing mode setting. This guide explains how the sharing mode affects resource visibility and collaboration, including respondents, respondent pools, and AI-indexed research documents.

Organization Sharing Mode

Each organization has an is_private setting that controls how respondents, respondent pools, and sampling strategies are shared among users within that organization. The sharing mode is chosen when the organization is created — there is no platform-wide default. Individuals can still collaborate on specific projects regardless of the org-level setting (see Project Ownership below).

Non-Private Organizations

When is_private=False, users have isolated access to their own resources:

How it works:

  • Respondents, respondent pools, and sampling strategies are only visible to their creator
  • AI-indexed documents are scoped to the active project
  • Users manage their own resource pools independently
  • Projects provide additional organizational structure

Default resources: Each user automatically receives a personal default project and a default sampling strategy (with standard gender and age factors) when they join. The default project can be renamed but not deleted. The default strategy is read-only, providing a consistent demographic baseline for pool generation.

Best for: Organizations with multiple independent research teams, environments requiring stricter data separation within the organization.

Private Organizations

When is_private=True, users within the organization trust each other and share resources:

How it works:

  • Respondents, respondent pools, and sampling strategies are visible to all users in the organization
  • AI-indexed documents are shared organization-wide
  • Any user can assign shared respondents to their campaigns
  • Projects still control access to questionnaires and campaigns

Best for: Teams working collaboratively, small organizations, research groups where data sharing is expected.

Working in Private Organizations

Respondents

Respondents are a shared resource:

  1. Navigate to Respondents in Targetor
  2. See all respondents in the organization
  3. Any respondent can be assigned to any campaign
  4. Import respondents and they become available to all team members

Campaigns

When creating or editing a campaign:

  • Select from the questionnaires in projects you own
  • Assign any respondent from the shared pool
  • Track progress across the organization

Working in Non-Private Organizations

Respondents

Respondents are isolated per user:

  1. Navigate to Respondents in Targetor
  2. See only respondents you created
  3. Import respondents to your personal pool
  4. Campaigns can only use your own respondents

Project Ownership (Both Modes)

Regardless of sharing mode, project-based access control applies to:

  • Projects: Only visible to users listed as owners; only an owner (or an administrator) can rename, delete, or change who else owns it. Owners must all belong to the project's organization — adding a user from a different organization is rejected outright, with no partial change
  • Questionnaires: Visible and editable if you own the parent project. This governs the questionnaire's QML too — the QML and its whole version history belong to the questionnaire, so there is no separate file to share or hide
  • Campaigns: Visible and editable if you own the parent project
  • Respondent Pools: Visible and editable if you own the pool's parent project. A pool created without a parent project is treated as an orphan: in a non-private organization only administrators can see it, while in a private organization it is shared like every other resource
  • Sampling Strategies: Visible and editable if you own the parent project (a strategy without a parent project follows the same orphan rule as pools — administrator-only in non-private organizations, shared in private ones)
  • Bundles: Visible and editable if you own the parent project

The sharing mode affects Respondents, respondent pools and sampling strategies without a parent project, and AI-indexed documents. Projects, questionnaires (and their QML), campaigns, project-owned pools and strategies, and Bundles are always controlled by project ownership, independent of the org's sharing mode.

Administrator Access

Users with administrator privileges can see all content regardless of sharing mode. This enables platform-wide management and support.

AI-Indexed Documents

When using AI-Assisted Questionnaire Generation, uploaded research documents are indexed for semantic search. These indexed documents follow the same isolation rules as other resources:

Org Type Document Visibility
Private (is_private=True) All indexed documents shared org-wide — any user can search across all indexed materials
Non-private (is_private=False) Indexed documents scoped to the active project — only users working on the same project can search those materials

How It Works

An editing session in Armiger is bound to one project, chosen before the editor opens, and that project is what documents are indexed into:

  • Documents uploaded or referenced during the session are indexed under that project
  • The session's chat is that project's conversation — moving to another project is a fresh session with access to only that project's indexed documents
  • The document tools the Designer uses (search, summary, listing) respect the project boundary

Why This Matters

In non-private organizations with multiple research teams, project-scoped isolation prevents accidental data leakage:

  • A researcher working on "Customer Satisfaction 2026" cannot search documents indexed by another team working on "Employee Engagement Q1"
  • Each team's research materials remain confidential to their project
  • This protection applies to the Designer and every specialist it delegates to

In private organizations, the collaborative trust model applies — all indexed documents are visible to all users, enabling teams to build on each other's research materials.

Practical Examples

Non-Private Organization: University Department

A university department with 10 independent researchers:

User Can See Can Use
Prof. Alice Alice's projects, respondents, and indexed documents Alice's resources only
Dr. Bob Bob's projects, respondents, and indexed documents Bob's resources only
Dr. Carol Carol's projects, respondents, and indexed documents Carol's resources only

Each researcher works independently. Alice's survey respondents cannot be accidentally used by Bob. When Alice uses the AI panel to index research papers, those documents are only visible within Alice's project — Bob's Research Agent cannot search them. Universities often choose non-private mode because researchers typically run independent studies with separate data, though a tight-knit research group may choose private mode for a shared respondent pool.

Private Organization: Market Research Firm

A market research firm with a collaborative team:

User Can See Can Use
Team Lead All respondents and indexed documents, plus every project they own Any respondent, search all indexed materials
Analyst A All respondents and indexed documents, plus every project they own Any respondent, search all indexed materials
Analyst B All respondents and indexed documents, plus every project they own Any respondent, search all indexed materials

Everyone collaborates on shared resources. The team lead can build on Analyst A's questionnaire design by joining that project as an owner. Analyst B can survey respondents that the team lead imported. When using the AI panel, any team member can search across documents that others indexed during their AI sessions. Business-tier organizations commonly pick private mode because team members work closely together on shared client projects — but the choice is made at org-creation time, not locked by tier.

How sharing mode maps to organization type

Sharing mode is set when the organization is created. Only the default ACME organization on every tenant is locked to non-private (it is a shared sandbox where individuals are isolated and collaborate at the project level). Every other organization — Business, Community, and future subtypes — picks is_private explicitly at create time; there is no default.

Organization Sharing mode Rationale
ACME on dev (Trial) Non-private (locked) Shared sandbox; per-user isolation; collaboration via projects
ACME on a production tenant (Professional) Non-private (locked) Shared bucket for individual paying subscribers; solo workspace
Business (dedicated org, production tenant) Operator-chosen at create time Typically private for tight-knit teams; non-private is valid when the team wants per-user isolation with project-level sharing
Community (dedicated org, dev) Operator-chosen at create time University departments often pick non-private; consortia may pick private
Enterprise (dedicated tenant) Custom per deal Full infrastructure isolation; sharing mode part of the contract

If your Professional workspace needs collaborative sharing across teammates, talk to sales about Business — a dedicated organization where the operator picks the sharing mode at create time.

Best Practices

For Private Organizations

  • Establish naming conventions - Prefix questionnaire names with project codes for easy identification
  • Document ownership - Add comments to the questionnaire indicating the responsible researcher
  • Coordinate respondent imports - Avoid duplicate respondent records
  • Use external IDs consistently - Link respondents to your CRM or panel provider

For Non-Private Organizations

  • Request sharing mode changes - Contact your administrator if you need to share resources
  • Use project collaboration - Add team members as project owners to share questionnaires and campaigns
  • Document respondent sources - Use the source_system field to track origin

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know which sharing mode my organization uses?

Contact your Askalot administrator. If you can see respondents and indexed documents created by other users, your organization is in private mode.

Can I share just one questionnaire with another user?

Add the other user as an owner of the project that questionnaire belongs to. This works in both sharing modes — questionnaires and their QML always follow project ownership, so there is nothing else to configure.

Can we switch between sharing modes?

Yes, the sharing mode can be changed by an administrator. Changing modes affects visibility immediately - it does not move or copy data.

What happens to existing resources when switching modes?

  • Switching to non-private: Users only see resources they created. Shared resources become visible only to their original creators. AI-indexed documents become project-scoped.
  • Switching to private: All resources become visible to all organization members. AI-indexed documents from all projects become searchable by everyone.

Next Steps