The preliminary results of a domain analysis of metamodeling, in the model-driven architecture (MDA) tradition, and ontology research technologies are described in this paper. It treats ontologies as formal conceptual models, thus similar to metamodels, and compares ontological technical spaces (OTSs) to a metamodeling technological space (MMTS), as the universes of discourse.

One result of the comparison is a taxonomy of features relevant to both. The taxonomy includes classifications of the following relevant categories and aspects: language, formalism, data model, reasoning, querying, rules, transformations, mediation, and modeling levels. While “marrying” technical spaces is not a formal notion, the paper attempts a side-by-side concept comparison (mapping) by listing intuitively acceptable correspondences for concepts.

The paper elaborates upon various possibilities for research regarding productive transformations between MMTS and different OTSs, based on using the proposed taxonomy. A comprehensive list of 50 references complements the paper, providing a fair starting point for researchers interested in further explorations on the intersection between MMTS and OTSs, and technical spaces in general.