I first heard the word "wiki" (or actually "wiki wiki") on a trip to Maui years ago. Who knew then that the term would be "borrowed" for a web 2.0 concept. Learning all about the "wiki" concept was interesting. I was already familiar with using Wikipedia but hadn't ever added to any wikis or edited one. As I watched the film and read the info I envisioned there being a lot of problems with the "edit wars" depending on the type of wiki. But that must not be a big problem, considering how popular they are.
To me it seems like a Wiki would work best in cases where the people using it are working in cooperation rather than competitively. So often when working on group projects the group members seem to just want to get their points & opinions across to the rest of the group. Maybe that's just been my experience though. I read in one of the articles that a wiki wouldn't work well if someone felt a need for "control" -- and I guess I feel like I always encounter one of those in any group project. (Sometimes it's even me.) :-)
I can definitely see where the use of a Wiki for planning something would be great in cases where it wasn't a "competition" though. Especially for people like me who are much more at ease sharing ideas in print than speaking up in a group setting. But this may be one of those things that I'd have to see in action in real life and participate in before I'll believe they really work well.
For library-specific use, it does seem like the book review wikis are really useful -- and fun.
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