Am I the only one who thinks Wikipedia should encourage the use of footnotes to external sources in its articles? The open contributor model has significant merit, but articles produced under it lack total authority because of the possibility for vandalism, inaccuracies, poor grammar, and disjointed structure. As all information is derivative from other sources, I hope the powers that be at Wikipedia will adopt the philosophy that it can not be trusted on its own as a stand alone encyclopedic record. Wikipedia's definitive value is far greater as a conduit to knowledgeable authority than as a purveyor of it.