ladypine: Viewing cost and benefit between individuals as somehow comparable is dubious. For one thing, it's completely gameable - individuals who exaggerate costs and benefits to themselves, or are just plain histrionic, are rewarded unduly. For another, social policies based on such theories tend to be downright racist, since they heavily slant towards whatever benefits the gender/race/whatever is dominant most cares about.

A much simpler and more justifiable approach is to try to reach pareto efficiency, which is a situation in which no two individuals can make an exchange and both be happier. This cleverly avoids making subjective comparisons of different peoples's worth, and also yields a straightforward algorithm for maximization. The success of capitalism can be viewed as a testament to the robustness of greedy algorithms.

robocoder: I suggest setting up CVS, a mailing list, syncmail, and a todo list. Picking a bug tracking tool to begin with is like starting the construction of a bridge by digging a mass grave for everyone who will die in the building process.