Klint Finley has written about Ward Cunningham's development of Fedwiki 
, linking ideas around Fedwiki to Github, whose strapline is "Build software better, together".
Our enterprise at this happening seems to be (learning about) building more generalised knowledge than software though the software may be building in response to this and other Fedwiki happenings.
I guess that we are using the meaning of fork "to divide in branches, go separate ways" but I note that fork was also used to mean "forked instrument used by torturers," Online Etymology Dictionary as forking is currently a bit of a torture for me - I am struggling to find out how it works on Fedwiki
In 2010, Anil Dash characterised forking as a cultural feature
Feminists know that Women's Ways of Knowing leads to diversity of ideas but forking seems somehow different from a feminist approach.
Mike Caulfield: Excellent use of the form! I like the title, and how it's focussed on one idea. I like how you've summarized the idea, but also pulled some resources together.
I might make one suggestion it would be to follow the Link Word syntax that Ward suggests. It's easier on the eyes and does a good job differentiating external links from internal wiki ideas.
Maha Bali oh my God, I just blogged something about politeness (or lackthereof) in forking; now that you mention Women's ways of knowing,this might be part of my discomfort with it. I am ok doing it here coz if is a bit gamelike but feel less comfy doing it with "real" work. Reminded also of some feminist wikipedia stuff, need to dig up links. Incidentally, i cannot tell who initiated this post and it's annoying me big time.
See alsoConstructed Knowing