A mechanism for the flow of access by derivation is provided. An access point may be any object, such as files or functions, to which the access recipient is granted access rights by the access provider. Access is typically represented by a relationship object referencing the access provider function, the access recipient function, and the access point object, and a set of access rights. This membership access relationship object is typically represented as a subtype of the access relationship. When a membership access relationship is created, typically a new associated persona function is generated, representing the new identity created for the access recipient function while serving as a member of the access point function. When a persona function is invited to be a member in another function, that in turn generates a membership and a second persona that is derived from the first persona, resulting in identity derivation.