Having a simple, clear, and unified web admin interface for
handling the day-to-day tasks of managing AOLServer, the db,
and the mail server would be a huge win. Having to administer
all the various unfamiliar pieces of the OpenACS stack is a
significant barrier to entry for those potential users who are
thinking about an in-house installation (as opposed to managed
hosting). This is a particularly important with vertical apps (like
dotLRN), where the client is buying what's supposed to be a
unified packaged solution.
It does sound like a hard job, though. Exactly what tasks could
be handled through a web interface? How hard would it be to
come up with a clear UI for those tasks? Which ones would be
the most useful to have first? And what tasks are admins likely to
need to perform that could *not* be handled through a web
admin interface?
