How to Join or Contribute to the Music Encoding Initiative Community

You can participate in the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) at several levels: follow community contacts and forums, join interest groups, contribute code or issues on GitHub, or have your institution become a member or sponsor. The right path depends on whether you are an individual researcher, a developer, or acting for an institution. The MEI site lists these channels under its Community section, alongside governance information such as the MEI Board, Technical Team, by-laws, and code of conduct.

Individual participation channels

The MEI website groups its community entry points under Community:

• Community Contacts — named people to reach out to
• Community Forums — discussion spaces
• Interest Groups — topic-focused groups within MEI
• News / Events — announcements and conferences

If you want to become an active MEI member, the site invites you to read more about the MEI community and how to join. Start with the Community Contacts and Forums pages to see which group matches your interest, then use the Interest Groups listing to find a working group.

Contributing to MEI development

MEI is described as a community-driven, open-source effort, and development happens on GitHub. The site explicitly invites contributions in two forms:

• Submitting issues — reporting problems or proposing changes
• Making pull requests — solving those issues with concrete changes

This is the most direct route for technologists, encoders, and anyone working with the MEI schema or Guidelines. Before contributing, review the Code of Conduct, which the site lists under Community.

Institutional membership and sponsorship

Institutions have separate options, listed under Community:

• Institutional Membership
• Sponsor Levels

These are the formal ways for an organization to support MEI. The site does not publish pricing or payment details in the material available here, so contact the community through the listed channels to ask about current terms.

Governance and how decisions are made

MEI's organizational structure is documented on the site, which helps you understand who to approach and how changes are decided:

MEI is co-hosted by the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, and the RISM Digital Center, Bern.

Conferences and events

The Music Encoding Conference (MEC) is the recurring community event. The site lists MEC 2027, taking place 7–10 June 2027 at the German Historical Institute (Deutsches Historisches Institut) in Rome, Italy, with the Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra as a partner and additional venue. The Community section also links to past conferences, proceedings, MEC awards, hosting guidelines, and an MOU template — useful if you are considering hosting or presenting.

A practical starting sequence

1. Read the Community pages (Contacts, Forums, Interest Groups) to find your fit.
2. Review the Code of Conduct before engaging.
3. For technical work, go to GitHub and either open an issue or submit a pull request.
4. For institutional support, look at Institutional Membership and Sponsor Levels, then contact the community for current details.
5. Watch News / Events for the next MEC and other gatherings.