Creating a Group

I work at one of the biggest accounts our company has. It is split into more than a few portfolios and each has an architect or two trying to provide some sort of consistency to the stuff we build - often against pressure from both the client and the project managers who only care about getting it done quickly and cheaply. (But I'll leave that for another post when I can write it down more objectively).
Recently the architects across account - or at least the more senior ones - were formed into a team to allow sharing of information and cross-pollination of ideas etc. An email alias was set up and a regular fortnightly meeting was arranged but the 'team lead'. Note where I said the team was formed - the concept, purpose and membership were controlled by the one person who thought it was a good idea for us to work together. I on the principle but the way it was done is doomed to failure.
The group was imposed on the members and the only communication channel ran counter to its purpose (I'll add a little sidebar on phone meetings soon - one of the worst way so of commnuicating yet devised). Everyone was happy to let the organiser to drive things. They were there because it sounded like a good idea but no-one know what they were supposed to add. Hence the email address was only used by the organiser to send out interesting links from the web and the meetings - when held at all - tended to last about 3 minutes beacuse no-one had much of anything to say.

Now the organiser of all this has announced that his resignation and I can see that the whole thing is going to fall in a heap. Which is a pity because, as I said, the intent was laudable. Collaboration between these people would provide all of us with a much better idea of the context in which we are operating and particularly on how we can make use of what is happening in other parts of the account (something that the client themselves have very little knowledge of).
In thinking about this, what we need is not a regular time-constrained meeting, either by phone or face-to-face. What we need is a virtual meeting place where people can add information about what they are doing, comment on what others are doing and generally share their knowledge. This is what social software is all about. A discussion board tied to a wiki would be the way to go. Somewhere that the individuals could get involved in rather than just coming along on someone else's ride.
Any relevant web-link could be commented on or extended with the discussion board. The Wiki could serve as a knowledge base with each person adding a page about their particular area as and when it suits. In theory at least, the effort requried by each person should be minimal while still creating something of lasting value to the team. Since the idea is to generate a team rather than just throwing together a group, the site should be somewhat less than formal, while still providing an induction point for any new starters. Yes, I am an idealist :-)
Unfortuntely there are no suitable sites within the company to do this. For an IT company - in the software development business - we are very conservative. There are a couple of sites designed for team collaboration but they require permissions from senior management to make any changes - such as creating a new wiki (think about that for a minute - staff need high level management sign-off to talk to each other!).
None of which is truly relevant. In the spirit of getting people involved, I sent an email to the group proposing the above and asking for suggestions on how to proceed. I got one response suggesting that a fornightly meeting might be useful.