You could help with the open camera.

The Basics: Iteration 1
"Just a project box" with a and a few buttons.
Photographic needs

• Low-resolution CMOS/CCD sensor.
• No lens.
• Simple shutter button.
• Small, low-resolution screen.
• Some number of other buttons.
• A scroll wheel would be cool.
  

Hardware needs

• USB connectivity (USB-B)
• SD or better card storage (2 to 5 slots)
  
• 802.11b or better wifi with SDIO expansion
  
• GPS with SDIO expansion
• Bluetooth with SDIO expansion
  
• ARM or better processor
• Modular hardware, selectable button positions.
• Simple component I/O
• Standard batteries
• Wall-power connection
• Tripod mount

The key is choice.

At least in First Iteration software.

Software needs

• Linux.
• Live software update/installation over wifi.
  
• OpenRAW support.
• Calendar.
• Store over wifi.
• Auto-upload to services.
• CUPS printing over wifi.
  
• Grouping photos with scalable time interval (like Apple Aperture's Stacks)
• Scriptabilty.
• Batch marking and processing of scripts.
• Intelligent calculation of time-to-execute all functions.
• Prompt user on tasks that will take a long time.
  
• Progress bars presented at all times.
  
• Simple block-based exposure program creation on-camera.
• Unlimited storage for presets and settings.
• Full text-entry for naming any photo or setting.
• Choice of what what file format to save as.
• Choice of what compression to use.
• Choice of what file size to save as.
• On-camera cropping.
• Photosynth integration.
• User-customizable power management (i.e. sensor polling, processor throttling)
• User-customizable resolution for all adjustments/sliders/selections/etc. (i.e. show ±0.01% battery life, rather than ±1 bar)
• Language support.