In a comment on my last post, Zoli Erdos provides the best description I have seen yet of when to use a blog and when to use a wiki to solve a business problem:

Blogs and wikis are often lumped together, but there is a huge difference: with a blog, the focus is still largely on communication, whereas using a wiki allows *creation*. Wikis shine when it’s not the debate/discussion, the individual arguments/comments that matter, but the synthesis of the collective wisdom.

In the world of finance, I have most often heard of banks using Wikis to set up Policy and Procedure documentation.

Personally, I think this is a great place to start using the technology. While getting the Policies and Procedures right is critical in today’s hyper vigilant SOX powered environment, the Policy and Procedure documentation itself is less mission critical on a day to day basis. Wikis can be very stable, as Wikipedia proves. However, in risk adverse banks, people always want to get familiar with a technology before using for mission critical applications, such as reporting.

What’s interesting about the Policy and Procedure applications is that they fit in exactly with Zoli’s definition of what a Wiki is best used for; they represent the synthesis of the collective wisdom.