Wikipedia has two core problems. At the level of merely an encyclopedia they've been able to cope with them but as wikipedia becomes more relied upon they will increasingly cause difficulties.
First, there is a fundamental misalignment between the people who are actually responsible for contributing the bulk of the value of wikipedia and the people who "run" the site. To the degree such that the people who are in charge are generally clueless where the value comes from. Almost all of the value comes from content edits, which come from the long tail of contributors, many of them anonymous. The admins and mods who run wikipedia generally contribute only formatting and metadata changes. Rearranging, fixing the layout, hooking up keywords and so on. However, there seems to be the impression within the wikipedia org that the 2nd group is responsible for the majority of value. So they structure guidelines and so forth with that in mind, sometimes to the detriment of the content.
Second, there are very flimsy standards of "evidence" for wikipedia entries. Overall this isn't such a bad thing because in reality most encyclopedia authoring groups are no better at ensuring they print the truth, but in wikipedia's case more readers will apply a critical eye and double check sources, which is all for the better ironically. However, as wikipedia becomes more and more trusted the need to rely on truly reliable sources becomes more and more important. And, as the internet becomes the primary method we communicate and store knowledge the need to store and catalog evidentiary sources becomes a more pressing concern than having a convenient encyclopedia at your fingertips.
First, there is a fundamental misalignment between the people who are actually responsible for contributing the bulk of the value of wikipedia and the people who "run" the site. To the degree such that the people who are in charge are generally clueless where the value comes from. Almost all of the value comes from content edits, which come from the long tail of contributors, many of them anonymous. The admins and mods who run wikipedia generally contribute only formatting and metadata changes. Rearranging, fixing the layout, hooking up keywords and so on. However, there seems to be the impression within the wikipedia org that the 2nd group is responsible for the majority of value. So they structure guidelines and so forth with that in mind, sometimes to the detriment of the content.
Second, there are very flimsy standards of "evidence" for wikipedia entries. Overall this isn't such a bad thing because in reality most encyclopedia authoring groups are no better at ensuring they print the truth, but in wikipedia's case more readers will apply a critical eye and double check sources, which is all for the better ironically. However, as wikipedia becomes more and more trusted the need to rely on truly reliable sources becomes more and more important. And, as the internet becomes the primary method we communicate and store knowledge the need to store and catalog evidentiary sources becomes a more pressing concern than having a convenient encyclopedia at your fingertips.