Responding specifically to Don's idea of setting up forums for non-hackers to contribute, I think the ACES project could be a perfect pilot for such a community effort. I know, for example, that GEN (Global Education Network)1 is a fairly large online community of educators that is very much interested in an Open Source eLearning platform. These are folks who are thinking hard about what they want in a platform and in some cases are pouring resources into it. I know one guy over there has done quite a lot of work on top of Zope, for example. I think these folks would be thrilled to join a conversation about ACES, particularly if it meant that they could get in contact with developers who could help them.
1 http://vu.cs.sfu.ca/vu/tlnce/PublicReg/PR_Register.cgi
