What I may do is simply define some default variables that must exist in a specific file for each module to define things such as:
- name
- version
- last release date (I can't stand not knowing how old my module is)
- official website
- current version url (for determining if there is a new version of the plugin)
I'll start poking around other apps to see how they do it. (Such as wordpress and similar)
Then I'll just have to decide where to hook in with my authentication module...