Wiki-like CMS for public viewing and private collaboration

Question

I am interested in a content management system that supports a wiki-like approach to the presentation of information (partly because public familiarity with the interface is desirable), but a strictly private collaborative process.

I realise this notion is antithetical to what passes for the philosophy of wikis, but the information intended to be presented must be 100% reliable at all times. On the private side, at least two classes of user should be allowed: ordinary collaborators, who cannot change the publicly-viewable content (only discuss or propose modifications in private) without the approval of an editor (reviewing and approving on a content-by-content basis).

Can someone experienced in this area advise whether a wiki can be configured in this way, or whether there are alternative (free) packages that can achieve this?

Again, the reason I am thinking along the wiki line is that it is very important that (often young) viewers be immediately comfortable with the interface, and that the collaborative back-end is robust. The wide range of embedding and citing capabilities is also important.

Answer 1

Mediawiki which is used for Wikipedia, does support private wikis provided you configure it properly. Please check the following links to get an idea about it- http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access http://mythopoeic.org/mediawiki-private/ NB: I haven't tried it, but it should work.