setting up some form of bulletin board/chat space for small group of people - any ideas how to do this?

[hatwoman]

I'm looking at doing some work which would benefit from a means of exchanging information between about 15 people. They are employed by different organisations - and some are not employed at all. I'd really like to get them exchanging stuff - could be interesting things they have read; questions (and, hopefully, answers) to each other; suggestion for collaborative work. It would need to be easily accessible from any computer (ie web-based, I guess) and private. Obviously they could just email each other but I'm thinking somthing more bulletin-board like would be more interactive. anyone know how best to do this? and how easy it is for a computing eejit?

My first thought was 'separatist Mumsnet group' but we won't go there

If you look on a few minority message boards they seem to be hosted by the same company, it must be like 'rent a forum' or something.

I can't remember the name though and don't know how much it costs.

While on 'Meet a mum UK' I think they built it in someone's understairs cupboard using a bit of 2x1 and a hammer.

If you want something free and easy to manage, start with Google Groups, then look at Yahoo Groups, then perhaps Basecamp (you have to look hard for their free solution), if none of these suit there are others, so come back for more suggestions.