Here's my first thought: Why not try something easier, like capping that underwater oil gusher or getting everyone to like Tiger Woods again.

Instead, the good folks at Wikipedia, backed by $1.2 million from The Stanton Foundation, are looking to develop innovative methods of increasing the accuracy -- and thereby public trust -- of Wikipedia articles dealing with public policy; in other words, the most contentious and bitterly disputed matters this side of religion. It is the first time Wikipedia has singled out a specific subject area for this type of intensive self-improvement effort.

(2010's 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries)

From the press release:

Wikipedia is written by hundreds of thousands of volunteers from around the world, and that won't change with this project. The Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative will recruit Wikipedia volunteers to work with public policy professors and students to identify topic areas for improvement, and work to make them better. Some of that work will take the form of classroom assignments, and pilot activities will begin during the 2010 fall academic semester. The project will continue through summer 2011.

"I am excited to begin this work," said Frank Schulenburg, Head of Public Outreach at the Wikimedia Foundation. "There have already been professors around the world who assign their students to rewrite and improve Wikipedia articles: it's a proven model, and it benefits everyone. My hope is that this project will enable us to experiment and document best practices, so that academics and educational institutions worldwide can partner with us in helping Wikipedia to continually improve in quality and content."

Of course, the trick is determining what's accurate and what's not. Here's the page outlining what Wikipedia today tucks under the umbrella of "public policy." One doesn't need to dip too deep into the alphabetical list to find roiling cauldrons of controversy, beginning with climate change, drug laws and foreign policy.

Schulenburg offers a bit more detail on the Wikimedia blog:

Wikimedia is now planning for and hiring the project team for the initiative, which will kick off in the fall academic semester 2010 (keep an eye on our jobs page for the postings). We will be working with some of the most esteemed educational institutions and public policy schools in the United States. We'll continue to share updates and information on the Wikimedia Foundation blog, and you can also track our progress and plans on the Wikimedia Outreach wiki.

Here are the jobs currently listed: Campus team coordinator; communications associate, online facilitator; research analyst; and project assistant.

The project and the jobs are scheduled to run from June through September, 2011.

(Update: I'm somewhat surprised that this announcement from Wikipedia hasn't gotten much press attention, given that it speaks directly to one of the most consistent criticisms leveled at the online encyclopedia. Meanwhile, the "Wikipedia porn purge" has gotten all kinds of coverage. No surprise there.)

(Update 2: Jay Walsh, Wikipedia's head of communications, answers a few of my questions via e-mail:

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