Why not just do a SETI@HOME style thing where you get a slice of a newspaper article, a human being types it up, each is compared to one or two other people typing the same thing up, when they all match that piece is done and you move on.

I guess that would take a tremendous amount of time, but it would be really cool to get an old newspaper article to look at, and I bet a lot of people would find interesting things to talk about.

You could have a "comment thread" for people who added the piece, kind of like adding a digital layer to history.