Wait, I need a Wiki

I decided that I would start writing a blog for two reasons. As an outlet for the thoughts on the project that I am working on and to capture details relating to problems that I come across or solve.

After leaving CallWave in September one of the many things that I miss is discussing software with people.  My team listened to me pontificate on software design, implementation and the engineering process.  That may not have been too much fun for them, but it was a good outlet for me.  Otherwise we went out to lunch and batted around the same topics asking questions and sharing.

Most people at CallWave, myself included, use(d) email to store all sorts of information not documented anywhere else.  After a few years it was obvious to me that this was a bad idea.  Email is tough to search, gets lots, "the guy" that always forwarded "those details" might leave the company.  I found that it was much better to dump those emails into a web page.  CallWave had MS Sharepoint for this purpose.  Not a lot of bells and whistles, but it did the job.  Things could be arranged hierarchically, edited, hyperlinks inserted etc.

For the Client team usage, we might just copy and paste an email into a page with no reformatting, just to capture the information.  I had a page for new team members.  Each time I sent the link to some one new I reviewed the page and added/edited a few details.  After a time I had a rather robust "new users guide".  That was the pain free way to have a living document.

I realized the stuff that I am likely to blog about, "hey look at me I figured something out", is the least likely to be read.  Just recently I wrote an entry about a problem I solved.  The information is useful, I am likely going to want to refer to it later, but the article sucks.  Not because the information is bad, just nobody is going to (or should) care.  Besides, blogs are good for capturing current ideas in chronological order.  They aren't meant to be a repository for information.  Searching them is a pain, sure there are tags and Google Site Search.  Still, if you can't recall exactly what you are looking for it stinks.

So, in the end it turns out I need a blog and a wiki.  The wiki should house those technical details that I want to find later.  The wiki is just for me, but none of the information is secret.  I may as well stick it out there.  If other people do find the knowledge useful they will appreciate that it is not buried in a blog.

Now I am in the process of selecting a hosted Wiki solution.  I asked a few friends and they mostly suggested Wiki software.  I need a service since I don't have any desire to be administrating servers.  Any suggestions?