I couldn't think of any other way to try and describe it, but if you look at the drupal projects page ( http://drupal.org/project ) how does one create something like that? I'm figuring it must be possible because there are a lot of areas within your own drupal site that has this effect (especially in theme mods or even those just at the top of a page you created - ie, where it has VIEW | EDIT | etc etc)

This is a great way to organise some stuff and I realise drupal have to keep a few things close to their chests, but can we emulate this at all?