Apparently the German government wants to increase the amount and quality of information available regarding renewable resources and will pay to have the German Wikipedia entries on the subject improved. The project seeks to have the Nova Institute, which is private, find “external experts to write entries on renewable resources for Wikipedia. These experts will first receive training for Wikipedia because collaboration in the community project has its pitfalls.” The goal is to have those “who have done good work in other projects to get involved in the community lexicon.” The project reminds me of the one of the Peer-to-Patent project’s aspirations: taking existing expertise and making better use of it. In addition, both require funds to achieve their objectives but seem to do so with a blend of public and private help. Maybe these efforts will start a new way of harnessing private actors’ knowledge to improve public information. If you do not know about Peer-to-Patent or Beth Noveck‘s work, I suggest taking a look at Beth’s blog which focuses on the First Amendment, Democratic Design, and Civic Innovation for the Digital Age.