I am currently unsatisfied with most, if not all, web-based collaboration tools I've ever used. Examples of what I'm considering a "web-based collaboration tool" are TWiki, WebEx, etc. What I have in mind of developing is to develop my own. The target "market" is for software/hardware developers who will likely be working on separate projects linked by a common goal.

Example: You work at a company who is designing a brand new printer. So, one man is working on the ink cartridge, another on the paper feed, one on the circuitry of the printer and one more is working on the drivers. What I would like to make (unless it already exists) is a website that, upon loading, presents the user with a web that has each project within it's own bubble, graphically. These bubbles would all be linked to the central bubble of "[Company Name]". Upon selecting an individual bubble the browser would focus and zoom in on that project bubble and expand more information (in bullets or with more affiliated bubbles) about subprojects, progress, setbacks, etc. Then, at a terminal "node" (i.e. a bubble with no sub-bubbles) a selection would then load a page with information relevant to that node.

That's a lot of monologue. In short, I want to know how I might approach this. My background is with algorithmic use of Python and C++. I've never done interactive web design like this; though, I have gone through the W3C tutorials on HTML4/5. I'm willing to learn a new language I'm just wondering which language/set of languages seem(s) most appropriate for this project.

Thanks, world, for imparting your knowledge to me.

An example of what the start page might look like is: