Well, my personal favorite way to improve the 'pedia is orphaning articles. Just go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Orhpaned_articles_from_July_2006 or [[WP:ORPHAN]], and then go to a page. Search for linked or linkable terms in the article, go to those pages, and insert links back to the orphan. After you've gotten 3 or 4 links (birthdates can always be good, because you can link back from the "births" section of the date page), remove the {{orphan}} tag.
There's a huge backlog, but not because of difficulty; rather, nobody seems to notice it. Two and a half years' worth of orphans should keep you busy for a while.
;)
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