Should we invest in an Internet of Things (IoT) platform or ecosystem or in an exploratory IoT culture? Through this thesis, we intend to offer any developer or company the possibility to choose the second option. To this end, we propose an approach that relies, first, on an understanding of the basic concepts of IoT. These concepts have been drawn or inspired from the literature. The approach we propose is horizontal and sets the stage for more specialized vertical approaches. It is an IoT solution development approach that is based on an IoT domain-specific modeling language that we have built from an IoT domain meta-model. This meta-model, which we propose to be an IoT reference model, advocates synthetic concepts that are shared by any vertical approach. This meta-model conveys a culture through what it is: an IoT language. Our approach proposes a three (3) phase process to develop an IoT solution. We design the solution model by deriving the meta-model.