[Orgmode] make a timeline from a table?

[Matt Price]

Hi eveyone,

I'm trying to do something that seems really simple 
to me but i still don't know how to do.  I want to draw a timeline that 
represents the stages of a research project (inception, research, 
presentation, writing, submission, publication...)  and I would like it 
to look something like this:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\                             \
 \                             \
  inception                research

only I want it to be pretty, say with little circular nodes connecting the diagonal lines to the main horizontal lines, and with the text aligned diagonally along the lines.  Is there an easy way to do this in org, and will it export say to html?  Or if not in org, some way to generate the graphic from a set of datapoints?  I imagine this must exist but I don't often make charts and graphics so I don't know how to do it. 

Anyway, I appreciate your help.  Thanks,
Matt