Heya, now we have a ROADMAP. Check it out (btw, please help us shape it too).
Ok the question was a setup so that I can answer it myself :).
Most importantly - askbot aims to provide a "mashable" django Q&A component that would work nicely together with other django applications that you might use on your unique and customized website. Of course it will also work just as well as a standalone forum application.
An imporant part of Askbot' agenda - is to give back to the Python/Django development community by possibly spinning-off side-projects. Currently a good candidate is a single signon application that accepts all sorts of login methods, another possible candidate for a separate project - reputation system linked to votes.
Thirdly - askbot aims to test new technologies - for example the plan is to rewrite all javascript using google closure library - which is a newly released platform for the enterprise web-applications.
Askbot is a completely open project - any programmer willing to contribute code will have commit access to the development repository. The caveat is that he/she has to follow the project roadmap (to be developed shortly - btw you are invited to shape it - just post your idea as a question and tag it "suggestion" or "feature-request").
Finally, we aim to develop the product that just works.
