Ideally what we would like as a next stage is a user interface improvement, the underpinning technology works and can be refined to match.
This solves the usability issues. For example rather than talking xml, it makes more sense to point a tool at your online archive (or hard disk collection) and for it to sniff out media files and suggest an intial mapping that the user than refines by moving mappings about in a visual interface.
This can be particularly hard to get right if there are complex multiple maps. For example "date" could be artefact date, find date, scan date, photograph date, restoration date, derived work date, publication date... as well as the date itself being ranges, periods, estimates, maximum date etc.
I'm in the Netherlands for the next Europeana meeting (hopefully someone will cover my expenses even if I have to be co-opted on a task force) and this might be the best time to discuss how we refresh the steering group, and call for new members, which can then push the next evolution and coordinate with the WMF, chapters and Europeana - none of which are right to lead on this by themselves.
Fae