Open Comments, hosted by The Open Group
Welcome to Open Comments hosted by The Open Group*, where we’ll discuss things openly with our guests from a variety of backgrounds and from different walks of life. Through this podcast, we hope to give you an inside look into a variety of topics with an equal mix of humor and candor.
In this series so far, we have touched on the following topics: Healthcare, HR, Diversity + Access to Technology, Cybersecurity, and lots more. We hope you enjoy our show and look forward to bringing more topics into the fold. Let’s get started!
*The Open Group is a global consortium that enables the achievement of business objectives through technology standards and open source initiatives by fostering a culture of collaboration, inclusivity, and mutual respect among our diverse group of 900+ memberships. Our Membership includes customers, systems and solutions suppliers, tool vendors, integrators, academics, and consultants across multiple industries.
Disclaimer: The Open Comments Podcast (hosted by The Open Group) is presented purely for informational and educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and the guests are their own and are not intended to harm or offend any group, organization, company, individual, anyone, or anything.
Host: Ash – CDMP- Certified Copywriter (CMP) – CDMA, Marketing Specialist, joined The Open Group in 2020, initially working in the Certification Team as a Certification Services Agent, before moving into the Marketing Team where he now works on marketing collateral, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and produces/hosts The Open Group, Open Comments Podcast. .
Open Comments, hosted by The Open Group
Open Comments: S2 Ep. 7 - Training the Future: Nova Smar’s Knowledge-Building Initiatives with Libanio Souza and Luciano Botto
What happens when standards escape the page and become tangible, hands-on experiences? That's the question Nova Smar is answering with their groundbreaking O-PAS Standard Roadshow, as revealed in this enlightening conversation with Libanio Souza and Luciano Botto – two industry veterans with nearly 80 years of combined experience.
The roadshow represents an unprecedented global initiative to democratize access to the Open Process Automation Standard (O-PAS), part of The Open Group Open Process Automation™ Forum. Since its announcement in 2023, this ambitious program has already completed 25 of its planned 50 worldwide events, bringing practical, hands-on training to students, engineers, end-users, and even competitors across multiple continents. "It's the biggest marketing program in our half-century history," Souza explains, underscoring the significance of this outreach effort.
What particularly stands out is the inclusivity of their approach. Rather than keeping technological knowledge within industry silos, Nova Smar deliberately hosts many events at educational institutions, creating ripple effects far beyond the formal nine-hour training sessions. "The roadshow itself does not end in the roadshow event," Botto notes, describing how each stop generates additional speeches and engagement opportunities that extend the standard's reach into local communities.
Both guests highlight the critical role of collaboration in developing and promoting industry standards. They credit The Open Group for their consensus-building methodology as being instrumental to the standard's success, while noting that despite effective online collaboration, in-person meetings often prove essential for resolving complex disagreements. Their problem-solving approach – breaking down challenges and attacking them with resilience – reflects Nova Smar's technological DNA and collaborative culture.
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The following episode has been recorded at the Open Group Amsterdam Summit Hello and welcome to Open Comments with me, Ash. Today's guests are from Novosmar. They are Libanio Souza and Luciano Botto. Welcome, gentlemen, to Open Comments. Please can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
Speaker 2:Yes, Thank you for the opportunity, ash. It's a real pleasure to be here with you. Well, I have been working for SMART since I was a little boy, which is a long time ago. I started at SMART when I was 19 as an office boy and from there I have been working in many divisions of the company, from R&D and up to now marketing. So that's my career. And today I'm engaged with Bob Buff helping to promote the Opus Standard.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Felipe, how about?
Speaker 3:you? Yes, I've been with Ismar for almost 40 years. I've been with Ismar for almost 40 years. I've been with Ismar almost for 40 years and I left the university and Ismar is my first job, so one of the first tasks was to follow the fieldbus standardization. So I have a long history following the standardization and in 2018, I started to follow OPATH, the Open Process Automation Forum OPATH, the Open Process Automation Forum and so we are engaged with this produce of this new technology, and then I start to know better the open group that help us to introduce this new technology to the market.
Speaker 1:And can you both tell our listeners a little bit about the OPAS Standard Roadshow, Standard of Standards and Industry 4.0, that has been in session during the Open Group Amsterdam Summit this week? Right?
Speaker 2:Good question, ashen. It's a pleasure to talking about it because it has been a long run since we started the Broad Show. We started planning it in 2022 and we announced this program at ARC in Barcelona in 2023. And we had scheduled 50 programs to go around the world spreading the Opus standard. And the beautiful thing about this is that it's not only a smart program, that is not only a smart problem.
Speaker 2:We have lots of the members that join the OPAF that is with us. For example, we have schools, universities as partnerships. We have company that join that join the, the OPAF who is, who are with us, for example, intel, csi, axon, mobil, shell, orinstall and some others. And we have other strategic partnerships in this process, for example, example, the Open Group. The Open Group is a great partner for us, helping us spreading it. For example, it's this session inside this summit, the summits we have. So yeah, and for us, for our history, it's the biggest marketing program we have. So yeah, for us, for our history, it's the biggest marketing program we have. We have more than a half century history of the company and it's also the biggest program inside the path to spread this new standard.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we would like to create this opportunity for the community to try the technology. You know standards, you write in papers, right, and it's hard to realize sometimes how to make that real, to materialize what you are defining. So what is Mar trying to do is to contribute with the OPAF, creating this opportunity for the community, for the students, for the end users, even for competitors, so they can learn how to apply the technology. So we give them a flavor of the way that you can take that definitions and become that real, to transform that and make that real. That's what we are doing. And then, with this marketing activity, we give some opportunity for people to play and to build their first Opus strategy. So it's also a way to show that the technology is mature, you know, and it's possible to even create this type of event.
Speaker 1:Thank you. So, with what you were just speaking about how it can be applied in different areas and to different groups, how it can be applied in different areas and to different groups when this was first being worked on, did you have a particular audience in mind, or was it more that you knew that this standard would be used by all these different professionals and people? So did you set out with a particular plan of starting with one group and then moving on to the other, or was it always something which was quite universal, in the sense of everyone can sort of use it in their different environments? It's quite adaptable in that sense, yeah.
Speaker 2:We have the event, we have a program, so the event happens in one day, so it's nine hours training, okay, and we have a limited limitation of 30 people who can join it, so you can get the most of it. But but the strategic thing is most of the events we do inside the schools, so the roadshow itself does not end in the roadshow event. Okay, because during the event we also do speeds for students, for teachers and also for the community in the area. So the roadshow event actually is larger than the event itself.
Speaker 1:Would you say. In that sense it's sort of like.
Speaker 2:And answering your question. No, you will not select who wants to join.
Speaker 1:Everybody is welcome and in that sense would you say it's more of an initiative because it's ongoing. Yeah, okay, nice.
Speaker 3:And we have been impressed with the type of different professionals that have joined the event. And we have a lot of engineering companies, we have students, we have the end users, we have competitors all come together and to try and to experiment technology. It has been a very successful program so far. So we already made 25 programs, so we have 24 more to run.
Speaker 2:And you know what is good? No program. Okay, we have the base, but every event we have something new to say Because it goes together with the decisions of the forum. Okay, always something new. So if you have joined one, it doesn't mean if you join the next one it's going to be the same.
Speaker 1:So it's more adaptable in that sense it adapts to the environment. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, okay, and on that note, speaking about moving on to collaboration, what does collaboration mean to you? So do you think collaboration is something that works best, say, in person? Is it something that works best online? Or do you think it's important to get that balance of when you can collaborate in person it's great to have that time there but also online, it's good to have those moments as well.
Speaker 3:Yes, I think it's very important to exchange information. You know, companies have different experience and people also have different experience, so we need to create this environment that we can show, express the ideas and decide for a common decision. So that's something that I appreciate in the open group this consensus that they try to read in order to decide for the standards, in order to decide for the standards. So that was really a very positive task in the open group when I joined, because I came from other groups standardization groups and they do not have that approach. So I found that very useful and we have been successful with these online meetings with all the infrastructure that the open group provides, infrastructure that the open group provides. But the in-presence meeting has been more effective. So we have even some situations that we couldn't reach an agreement on the remote meetings that we need to set up in person meeting to reach the solutions. So all this collaboration is very important to achieve the results of a standard that will reach a lot of people, a lot of sectors, a lot of companies.
Speaker 2:And the Open Group has a real role important in this contest because the atmosphere from the team, the open group in general, is fantastic. It's great, so you feel good to be there. It helps a lot in this process.
Speaker 1:Nice and moving on to your views on problem solving and decision making, how do you break down problems and overcome obstacles? So, for example, say, if it's a particular problem that you faced on a project, or you faced a little bit of hurdle of a project that was a bit unexpected, do you have a particular process in that, a particular mantra that you use, or how do you go about it, because you both seem obviously very passionate about what you do. So what I'm trying and getting at is, say, when you come across obstacles or, um, in dealing with problems, how do you break them down without being too disheartened, say, if a project hasn't come to?
Speaker 3:fruition the way in which you hoped it would be would come, as we are used to face big challenges, so we need to break them group of people with different expertise and bring all that ideas to solve and later on you can join and address the solution for the complex problem that we have.
Speaker 1:Would you say. Resilience plays a part in that as well.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, because it's not easy to find a solution the first time. Right, you have to keep going, keep going and try to find that solution.
Speaker 2:It's more has been like that since I know the company. We are kind of, let's say, lovers, we love what you do. We are kind of, let's say, lovers, we love what you do. And we are a technological company and problems are our daily life and people are really close to each other. So getting solutions is it's our.
Speaker 1:It's our day-to-day business thank you, gentlemen, for speaking with us today on the OPAS standard, roadshow, standard of standards and industry 4.0. Please can you provide our listeners with any links of where they can learn more about the roadshow and any other last comments that you'd like to share? Yes, our listeners with any links of where they can learn more about the roadshow and any other last comments that you'd like to share?
Speaker 2:yes, thank you, thank you. Thank you for that, ash. Anyone who wants to join us at the roadshow, just go to our website, which is wwwismarsmarcom, so there you can find the information. Also, the open group they also have the information. Mr Roberto is there watching us, responsible for us to be here in this summit? So yeah, we hope to see as many people as can join us in there. We have been in many places around the world. We have been in Asia, asia in Europe, in US. Of course, we started in Latin America, where the company is based, but we grabbed the opportunities. If people want us to go there, we go there to share experience.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Thank you so much. Would you like to say anything else?
Speaker 3:Yes, just to thank you for this opportunity to talk about this activity and say that we are very happy with the open group events and how fast we are able to produce this standard and make that real.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Thank you so much, and thank you to our listeners for tuning in to Open Comments. We hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we have and please stay tuned for more episodes coming soon. Stay safe and happy listening. Thank you so much, and thank you so much, gentlemen, for joining Open Comments today.
