Well, portability will be an issue. Need to find tools to run for *NIX and Win32 and other platforms. Re: Scheduling at NT has a link to a perl implementation for cron, workable on a Win32 platform. The PPT will give alot of the command line tools. MySQL can be the database backend.

Something to consider on the heuristic/ranking end, so far as implementing such a system, is the GNUS mail/news package for EMACS. Granted, it is LISP, but the logic could easily be ported over (or so I hope after such a grandiouse statement). Very similar to what you describe from a messaging background.

A Tk interface is worthwhile as well as the command and web interfaces.

The proposed back-end querying could save us corporate slaves hours in reports and time tracking, not to mention better inventories, etc.

Please summarise the comments when you get them collected, in your copious free time.

HTH
--
idnopheq
Apply yourself to new problems without preparation, develop confidence in your ability to to meet situations as they arrise.

~ Shunryu Suzuki