As with most all software, there will be beta releases. Doing it Right™ will involve
lots of up-front work on the backend and several other aspects tho. Those 2 sentences together means that it will be at least 2 months before the first beta of any consequence will be seen - we've got lots of planning and core design to go over before the first 1 & 0 hits the pavement.
This forum was opened to get a general feel for what you guys want, we understand that it also creates a desire for it even if it isn't close to being ready... patience grasshopper
Ask again in a month to see where we are... we'll make news available when there is some in the meantime. For those who can't wait, there's already several scripts that do a lot of what we're working on, just not with the same degree of integration combined with clean coding. Check your forum for your version for the ubbnews script, the latest threads script, the calendat mod, etc.
We are working as quickly as volunteer time allows, but you can't throw it together, you wouldn't like/want the end result.