Why are academics so afraid of Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is without doubt one of the modern wonders of the world. Since wikis were invented back in 1994 by Howard G. ‘Ward’ Cunningham, a US computer programmer, Wikipaedia has been an incredible success. I also think it is one of the wonders of the web that you can still go to Cunningham's original wiki.

Launched as recently as 15 January 2001, Wikipedia now has more than 2 million articles and is the largest encyclopaedia in history. It is reviewed continuously by everyone and libellous, criminal an copyright material is removed. While there will always be some arguments over its accuracy, the same can be said for many of the academic books I have read.


Wikipedia is the only book I have ever read which warns me it needs more citations to verify what is on it. It also had far more citations than any other book I have ever looked at. So why are academics so critical of it? Could it perhaps be because Wikipedia threatens their own authority?

Picture: http://ventnorblog.com/copy_images/flat-earth.jpg

In previous eras there were academics who refused to accept the blindingly obvious as the above picture reminded me. Or perhaps the earth is flat, after all.