Alan Liu and others have set up a Knowledge Base for the Department of English at UCSB which includes a neat Toy Chest (Online or Downloadable Tools for Building Projects) for students. The idea is to collect free or very cheap tools students can use and they have done a nice job documenting things.
The idea of a departmental knowledge base is also a good one. I assume the idea is that this can be an informal place for public knowledge faculty, staff and students gather.