I contribute to a wiki and a community that looks at some of the why and how questions which you might appreciate.

There are also many academics and researchers who are in the space which may give you some examples. Some are talking about the space under the moniker of A Domain of One’s Own or the hashtag #DoOO. The project name is a direct reference to Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own (1929) in which she writes:

“A woman must have money, and a room of her own, ​if she is to write fiction.”​

If you want to immerse yourself, we’re having a free online conference this weekend that will help you explore the idea and even begin starting down the road if you like. In fact, the conference is hosted BarCamp-style, so I heartily recommend you attend and suggest your exact question as a session for discussion and brainstorming! If you’d like there are a bunch of volunteers that can help you get something started on the second day.

Personally, I really love WordPress.org infrastructure which I recommend running on Reclaim Hosting (they focus on universities, colleges, and academics) which will get you up and running with a domain name (usually about $10/year depending on what you choose) and hosting for $30/year. They have excellent support and you’ll find some of the smartest and most ethical technologists in academia in their fora. I use my own website as a research notebook cum commonplace book.

I’ve got some time between now and the end of the year if you need some volunteer technical help, I can assist you in getting over some of the technical hurdle to get something up and running and using it if you like.