There has been a lot of talk on WikiEN-l about the need for citations in articles. I tend to agree with that. But our current system of wiki refs only encourage the creation of footnote-like references to external websites (which is less than ideal).
I have put together a proposal that, if enacted, would create a more wordprocessor-like footnote system that could be used for all types of footnotes (web, ISBN, journal articles, and written out dead tree citations).
See and respond on:
http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footnotes
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)