A recent report on the BBC news network features an interview with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, who has admitted that Wikipedia is too complex for most people to edit. The site, which is used by 400 million people per month, was launched in 2001 with little fanfair. Since then, it has become the biggest encyclopedia of knowledge in the world. The main problem according to Mr. Wales, is that the wiki editing system (which is also used by other sites like wikileaks, wikimedical et al) is that it is "too complicated for many people to edit".

Thats not such a bad thing really. If it was very easy to modify the information, then the reliability of the information on the site would be a lot lower as all manner of ne'er do wells decide to monkey around with the content on a whim.

The biggest problem I find with the site is that there is always the danger that a student or researcher uses wikipedia as the only source of information on a topic without doing further research independently. Because the information can be changed by just about anyone, it is very easy to insert misleading information- however, on some topics, editors are used to review and approve changes, especially on high profile topics like politics or science.