Best Practices
Public vs. Private
Be sure to inform participants how public or private the wiki you will be using is prior to required usage for the class. Internal wikis (within your LMS) typically can only be accessed by enrolled students while external wikis can be private or public depending on the site and settings that were chosen.
Trust & Community
Being clear about how public the site is can help build trust, but it isn't the only thing you should do. Especially for small group projects where participants will edit each others' work, the facilitator needs to work to build a sense of community and trust. If participants don't trust each other, they are likely to experience conflict when one person changes someone else's words. Emphasize the ideas of shared goals and shared ownership of the project.
You can also encourage a sense of trust by asking people to use the comments area for discussion with their group. This is especially important if they make a major change. The comments area can be used to explain the rationale for significant revisions, so others in the group understand why the change was made.
Comments
Encourage students to add their work on the wiki page itself and not in the comment area. In the Sakai wiki, the comment area is below the main page; other wikis have discussion on a separate tab from the main page itself. If students do put comments in the wrong place, you can move the content to the correct location yourself to model correct use of the tool and help coach students if necessary.