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What are Communities of Practice?

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.

OMiLAB 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!

OMiLAB Community of Practice

The Community

Participants engage in joint activities and discussions, such as:

• NEMO Summer School: 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.

OMiLAB Community of Practice

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.

How to join the OMiLAB Community of Practice?

Establish an OMiLAB Node at your organization

The installation of the hardware and software systems of the digital innovation environment (one-time purchase). All nodes have a physical and software environment for the design and prototyping of digital models.

Have a look at the OMiLAB Network of Nodes!

Research with proof-of-concept implementation

Create your own modelling method and tool based on the ADOxx platform and release your tool for the community to access.

Community Modelling Tools

Contribution to common publications

Take part in the next book volume of the OMiLAB book series, initiate and contribute to common publications (e.g. Digital Engineers, Digital and Physical Twins, OMiLAB Ecosystem).

Have a look at the publications!

Lecturing in conceptual modelling and digitalization

Use OMiLAB resources for education and research, such as the Bee-Up and Scene2Model tools and the ADOxx platform.

Get Inspired

Participate in the NEMO Summer School

If you are a student (enrolled in a Master or PhD program) apply and participate in the next edition of the summer school. There are limited spots for Bachelor students, industry and post-doc participants as well. If you are interested to become a speaker at the event get in touch with us at events@omilab.org!

Find out more about NEMO

Stay Connected with the Community

Check regularly the OMiLAB.org platform for new resource releases from the community or upcoming events and activities for you to take part in.

Follow OMiLAB NPO on LinkedIn , Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram to stay up to date with #communitynews, latest research publications, our work in challenging digital innovation based on open models, and next events, tutorials, and other activities organized by us or community members.

Subscribe to our newsletter which comes out 4-6 times a year.

As a community member, you also get access to our private groups where you can interact with the other members and share with us your work.