Participatory modeling

Participatory modeling is an approach which is a branch of the general field of conceptual modeling. Its specialisation is aimed towards involvement of a large number of people.

Benefits obtained from this type of modeling is numerous, depending on the application area. In particular participatory modeling can give a high degree of ownership and motivation towards change for the people involved in the modeling process. There exists two major approaches which themselves provide highly different goals for the modeling; Continuous modeling and conference modeling.

Continuous modeling

Continuous modeling focus on the end-user being the active modeler. This can be incorporated into an adaptable, context-sensitive, "intelligent" system, which is suited to the end-user on an individual level, this combination is often termed model generated workplaces or model generated user environments.

The idea is that the end-user potentially has the greatest actual domain knowledge and thus the organization as a whole benefits by obtaining and externalize this knowledge.

Conference modeling

Conference modeling is an approach where the goal often is of a more social kind, such as motivating, change management, externalization of knowledge and so on. The idea is to involve a large number of diversified people from the domain in question. Then the modeling process is performed in participation among them during a fixed period of time.

See also

• Model-driven architecture
• Participatory Design
• SEQUAL framework
• Web2.0

References

Alexander Nossum (2008) (PDF). Modeling 2.0? State-of-the-art in participatory modeling. http://folk.ntnu.no/alexanno/skole/ModIS/ParticipatoryModeling/ParticModel.pdf. Retrieved 2008-05-06. 

Natalie A Jones et al (2010). Evaluating Participatory Modeling: Developing a Framework for Cross-Case Analysis. http://www.springerlink.com/content/b336718k66731634/.