Communities of Practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor. Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly (Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, 2015).

The domain. The community. The practice.
These three characteristics are essential in classifying a community as a Community of Practice.

The Domain

Conceptual modelling and more specifically creating value through models brings the OMiLAB Community of Practice together and is our shared domain of interest.

OMiLAB NPO supports an active global community for conceptual modelling and acts as a facilitator to the development of scientific methods and technologies for all those who value models. It also acts as a platform, where participants can bring in ideas related to modelling and engage in the exploration process.

We use abstraction to reduce complexity
in a domain for a specific purpose!

The Community

Participants engage in joint activities and discussions, such as:

•  NEMO Innovation Camp: Meeting opportunity for active members of the community and new ones to share their knowledge with international students, young researchers, and industry participants with a focus on ‘Learning conceptual modelling to innovate, design and engineer digital ecosystems’.
•  Conferences/Workshops: Community participants meet at various international conferences and workshops organized in adjacent fields with a research interest in conceptual models. These conferences can be also organized by community members. The aim is to discuss recent publications and research findings within the conceptual modelling field.
•  Trainings/Tutorials/Events: Organized by the community members or by the OMiLAB NPO, such as trainings for metamodeling, tutorials for digital design thinking, tutorials for developing and using conceptual models, and courses dedicated to students on the topic model-based design solutions.

We share knowledge, technologies, values, and enable our community to realize innovative ideas.

The Practice

The community has an open-source mindset and developed various resources, available to everyone interested. The community is continuously working on model-based solutions for recurring problems in digital transformation while challenging innovation:

•  OMiLAB Network of Nodes: OMiLAB is a laboratory that provides resources, hardware and software, materials, and documentation for digital innovation experimentation. It is both a physical and virtual space. Everyone can join the OMiLAB Network of Nodes, by having the laboratory installed at their premises, both academic and industry. This environment for digital innovation allows community members to co-create and collaborate on developing materials and resources, having access to the same basis infrastructure that they can further build upon.
•  ‘Domain-Specific Conceptual Modelling: Concepts, Methods and ADOxx Tools’ book series has two volumes with contributions from different international research groups. They developed a domain-specific conceptual method and implemented the corresponding modelling tool. All chapters are enriched with case studies and examples from praxis.
•  Domain-Specific Modelling Tools: The tools from each book chapter along with other tools developed by the community members using the ADOxx meta-modelling platform are available for everyone to download, use and further improve.
•  Research Projects: Community participants work together on research projects and are part of international project consortiums. The work is collaborative between academic, research, and industry partners. They can be EU-funded projects, international project grants or bilateral research projects between OMiLAB nodes.

We have an open mindset. All the resources are developed by the community for the community.