Hallo Cartographers (If you are not a Cartographer, you are lost. Go get a map)

I am in the process of building up some software proof of concept incorporating G.I.S. tools. Is anyone here familiar with GDAL, PROJ4, or other technical libraries for the command line?
The project will be open source, free, and cross-platform, with the goal being to adapt flat maps to properly projected spheres.
If you are not a GIS expert but are VERY comfortable in a Linux command line environment and interested in testing components, I can walk you through the testing process.

-- Molly J.