Objectives
Meta-modelling is the activity of designing languages through
precise definitions of constructs and rules needed. The result
of such an activity are meta-models. Ontologies are shared
conceptualisations of domains of interest. A frequently used
description of the relationship among meta-models and ontologies
is that a valid meta-model is an ontology, but not all
ontologies are modeled explicitly as meta-models. However,
currently the communities of meta-modelling and ontologies only
have few overlaps and the exact relationship has still to be
worked out in more detail.
A particular use case for combination of both is to use
meta-modelling for defining mappings between different
ontologies expressed in the same language or even between
different ontology languages. The problem of mapping different
ontology languages is essential for the success of the Semantic
Web: one of the key advantages of ontologies is to provide
interoperability among heterogeneous data sources and
applications, each using potentially different ontologies and
ontology languages.
The second Workshop on Meta-modelling and Ontologies (WoMM'06)
aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners from the
field of meta-modelling as well as ontologies.
