Today's NYTimes featured an article on Wikipedia and the quality of the sites' user generated content.

The article states, "Wikipedia's reputation and internal editorial process would benefit by having a single authority vouch for the quality of a given article. In the jargon of library and information science, lay readers rely upon "secondary epistemic criteria," clues to the credibility of information when they do not have the expertise to judge the content."

Having "a single authority" for content defeats the purpose of Wikipedia. What Wikipedia really needs is a user rating system where readers can make their own assessment as to the quality of individual content.