About us
Goal
We are a community-driven platform for people who want to get more in-depth knowledge of systems and software design for solving complex business problems. While we began with Domain-Driven Design, we now explore a wider range of topics that are relevant to designing and building resilient systems. We aim to share knowledge in a decentralised way so that every member can contribute and learn from others.
How it all started
It all started back in 2019 at Domain-Driven Design conferences. A few of us—Julie, Zsofia, Kenny, and Marco—found ourselves spending more time in the “hallway track” than in the official talks. We realized the best conversations were happening spontaneously, just by bumping into each other and chatting. That’s when we asked ourselves, “Why do we have to wait for a conference to have these conversations?” We decided to create a space where we could keep them going whenever we wanted. That’s how our first virtualDDD sessions began, as simple Sunday meetups to talk about the stuff that really mattered to us in the community.
Building a Community Without Boundaries
When the pandemic hit, we were already set up for a different way of connecting. We quickly started adding more sessions and even hosted a full-day online conference. This was also the time Krisztina and Maxime, who were already active joiners of the sessions, joined us as organisers so we could have a session every 2 weeks! When the world started to open up again, we noticed something had shifted. We realised we weren’t just about recreating the “hallway track” any more; we were a home for anyone who couldn’t—or didn’t want to—meet in person. Our goal expanded, and we introduced new formats like hands-on workshops and online discussions, making sure everyone had a way to contribute and learn, no matter where they were.
Decentralising Knowledge and Expanding Our Focus
Over the years after the pandemic, we started to experiment with new ways to recreate the atmosphere we loved at in-person conferences. This led us to host online Open Spaces and even a global DDD day, which mixed online sessions with live streams from in-person events. While our core group of organisers was based in Europe, we noticed people from all over the world were joining in at times that weren’t ideal for them. It so happened that one of our active community members, Andrea, moved from Europe to New Zealand, which inspired us to think differently. We started experimenting with a more decentralised approach. Our goal was to build a platform that made it easier for anyone to organise their own session, no matter where they were. To facilitate this and keep conversations going between sessions, we also started an async community in Discord.
At the same time, our conversations were naturally expanding. While Domain-Driven Design has always been an unbounded topic in the domain of software design—touching on everything from technology to social science—we saw more discussions happening around the wider world of systems and software design. This led to a new vision for our community. We’ve rebranded virtualDDD and redesigned our platform to better support a wider global community.
Our focus is now on decentralising how knowledge is shared and making it easier to have more sessions on a broader range of topics, while still centred on systems and software design for solving complex business problems. We are always happy if active community members join us and help us organise in any way. Feel free to contact us if you are interested, and see you online in our community discord and events!
