The result of the first workshop -- the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set -- represents a simple resource description record that has the potential to provide a foundation for electronic bibliographic description that may improve structured access to information on the Internet and promote interoperability among disparate description models. It's major significance, however, lies not so much in the precise character of the elements themselves, but rather in the consensus that was achieved across the many disciplines represented at the workshop.
The Warwick Metadata Workshop was a follow-on activity, intended to broaden the international scope of consensus and to identify impediments to deployment of a Dublin Core model for resource description. The results of this workshop include a proposed syntax for the Dublin Core, the development of guidelines for application of the Dublin Core, and a framework (the Warwick Framework) for metadata that will promote modular, separately accessible, maintainable, and encryptable packages of metadata. Thus, a Dublin Core package might be one of a number of other packages, including packages for terms and conditions, archiving and preservation, content ratings, and others.
As co-convener of these two workshops, I would be pleased to represent the results of these activities at the Distributed Indexing/Searching Workshop, especially with regard to the possible inclusion of the Dublin Core in HTML.