Wacky wacky wikis*

There are a number of wikis out there with a good amount of networking information. A few which immediately spring to mind include:

• Wikipedia - Obviously not networking-specific, but very useful nonetheless.
• Internetwork Pro - This Cisco-oriented wiki run by Brandon Bennett has been around for a long time and is referenced often in the unofficial #cisco IRC channel on Freenode.
• Ciscopedia - This wiki was recently founded by Ivan Pepelnjak of IOS Hints but is quickly expanding.
• CiscoClue - Cluepon also features a Juniper wiki.
• And of course Cisco's own Cisco Support Wiki, recently launched but holding great promise.

I'm all for sharing information, but it seems that having a growing number of disparate wikis with overlapping content contradicts the purpose of wiki functionality: centralized community collaboration. It is this aspect of collaboration that differentiates a wiki from a static knowledge base. I find myself hesitant to commit to contributing to any one wiki for fear my work might be marginalized by a competing wiki, and duplicating the same content across multiple wikis just feels dirty.

It would be nice to see some of the smaller wikis combined, but I realize that is asking for a great sacrifice from their respective maintainers. Alternatively, the smaller wikis could carve out distinctive niches, carrying only specific genres of articles or other resources. Either approach would be sure to help the community as a whole, as none of the wikis is presently a one-stop resource. Maybe I should create my own... (kidding). (Edit on 18 Sep 2009: But not really, right?)

* An alternate title for this post was "Wiki Tikki Tavi," but I wasn't sure how many people would get the reference. To compound potential confusion, it turns out there's also a wiki engine named WikkiTikkiTavi.