For more than twenty years, the DCMI community has developed and curated Dublin Core Specifications. More recently, DCMI has become recognised as a trusted steward of metadata vocabularies, concept schemes and other metadata artefacts, and has taken responsibility for other community-created specifications. DCMI remains committed to this important work, and is actively developing more efficient and sustainable approaches to the stewardship of these standards, through the work of the DCMI Usage Board.

DCMI is defined by its community which is responsible for the innovative developments and evolving good practices which DCMI shares with the world. Much of DCMI's work is organised in working and interest groups. DCMI's community is and has always been international, with active participants from around the world. The primary community event is the DCMI Annual Conference. DCMI also organises regular webinars, given by members of the community wishing to share their expertise with like-minded peers. Finally, DCMI collaborates with a number of other organisations.

DCMI supports teachers and learners of modern metadata technologies and practices. An updated Metadata Basics page highlights current trends in descriptive metadata in the style of Dublin Core, which aims at interoperability through using globally shared vocabularies, constrained in application-specific profiles, based on principles of Linked Data. Interested learners can also explore a glossary page, a Linked Data Competency Index that enumerates relevant skills to be learned, a guide for users of DCMI metadata terms, occasional webinars and tutorials at DCMI annual conferences.

DCMI has a long history of fostering and supporting technical development and innovation through the activities of its community, often in partnership with other organisations. Following on from the development of the ubiquitous DCMI Metadata Terms, the community has in more recent years focussed on the concept of the metadata application profile, developing supporting frameworks and conceptual models such as the Singapore Framework. Most recently, the Application Profiles Interest Group has formed to address the next stage of development in this space.