Wikis & their potential

Let me be frank at the start. I have never been a big fan of "wikis". It could be mainly because many years ago when I searched the World Wide Web for information, I would often be given a link to "Wikipedia". And because almost anyone could add stuff to Wikipedia, I really didn't think that as a source of information, it was all that accurate.
Nowadays I can see that Wikis in general have a lot of potential.
Wikis have a lot of potential for not only libraries but any business. For large libraries with many branches, wikis are a powerful tool. They allow people who are in different locations to collaborate on a project. As wikis can be password protected, there is no reason why managers in different braches cannot all use a wiki as a tool for their project. You can imagine a Wiki as being a big piece of paper that anybody in the group can "scribble" on! It could even be possible to have one wiki page as a "brainstorming" page where there are no rules and have another wiki page which can be used as the actual project page.
I don't know if this is good or bad, but as wikis can be accessed over the internet, then you don't have to be at any specific location in order to contribute to the wiki page. So, in other words, what I am saying is that if employees are unable to get to work, they can still contribute to the project from home over their own internet connection. Even if people are on the other side of the world at a conference, they can add their two cents worth at any computer with an Internet connection (although I guess not all countries have a standard "Qwerty" keyboard!!).
In the library arena, wikis may be able to help create a virtual community of people who share an interest in a certain topic. For example, it may be possible to have the public contribute to lists of romance authors. Of course, there is always the danger that people will disobey the rules and use the forum to annoy others.