A reporter pal points out to me that the Wall Street Journal has a front page story on Wikipedia: "Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages". Alas, it's subscriber-only:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125893981183759969.html
There's also a publicly viewable blog article "Is Wikipedia Too Unfriendly to Newbies?", and an interview with their reporters:
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/11/23/is-wikipedia-too-unfriendly-to-newbie... http://online.wsj.com/video/news-hub-wikipedia-volunteers-quit/BB9E24E7-2A18...
I suspect it's nothing we haven't been talking about for a while, but if anybody with access has a chance to summarize the main points, I'd find that helpful in replying to the friends who will inevitably be asking about this. If not because of this article, then from the other reporters that I presume will be joining in shortly.
William