Project Management and Wiki

This 41-minute podcast recorded during the EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference features Geoffrey Corb, Senior Director, Student Information Systems, The Johns Hopkins University and Stephen Hellen, Project Manager, The Johns Hopkins University speaking on Wiki and Project Management.

The session abstract:

This session will introduce wiki concepts and explore their use in project management and in supporting IT systems in higher education. JHU's implementation of a new student information system extensively uses an enterprise wiki, which will be highlighted, along with use cases, examples, and lessons learned.

For the past two weeks I've been trying to identify and assess web based applications that would meet several needs within the broad umbrella of project communication/management:

• provide a quick overview of what's happening on a given project
• have a component that could be used for documentation
• be multi-layered (a public component available without login; a private component for authenticated users only)
• provide distribution components (RSS...)
• standards based
• has a simple and easy-to-use interface
• hosted externally or internally
• provide multiple views of content (via tagging, grouping...)

I've been surprised at how hard it has been to find an application that meets many of these needs. 

I've been playing with SharePoint for a few months but feel that the learning curve to make it an effective and organic tool is significant.  Basecamp is a bit too simple.  I entertained the idea (suggested by our brilliant Director of Administrative Systems, Ted Simpson) of using Educause Connect (but it lacks the overview and cohesive functions we're looking for).
A straight-up wiki application might be the closest thing I've found; yet something is missing (perhaps the calendar/overview features).  I have the feeling that the solution is much simpler and more obvious than is apparent to me.