Thanks, I've been observing the state of technology for a long time. I'm happy to share what I know.

It's a basic tenant in networking that information is shared freely, as much as is feasible. The entire premise of networking is that we need to work together to accomplish a goal, across platform/vendor boundaries, across company boundaries, and across personal connections. I am specialized in networking, and we tend to work and share more freely than other areas of IT; not to say any are secretive per-say (aside from the software companies, those guys are generally dicks about IP, specifically with all the closed-source code that's locked away, often without a good reason), it's just that I haven't had as open discussions about any form of tech with any group of technologists, as I have with networking folk.