The conceptual model of data spaces provides a set of well-defined concepts, and relationships between them, as well as a set of terms to refer to them. By relying on the conceptual model, the authors of the data spaces blueprint and the broader community of practice can clearly express data space related topics.

The blueprint comprises a wealth of documents for use in various contexts, such as business, legal, application, technical, and architectural. All authors are expected to use this language in its intended meaning to express the content of such documents. Readers will find such documents much easier to understand and experience less confusion and misunderstandings.

A conceptual model is distinct from an architectural model. For example, in city planning, conceptual models introduce terms for concepts like 'house', 'shop', 'mall', 'road', etc., and the architectural models of individual cities will tell you whether or not there are malls, where the houses are, how the roads connect them, etc. Similarly, in data spaces, the various conceptual models introduce terms such as 'governance framework', 'data transaction', 'data space infrastructure', etc. How these concepts are implemented in practice through services and components and the way these relate to each other and the governance framework is part of the data space architecture.