Hello dear Experts,
I saw this in Tweeter, and I think it’s a good questions for us, so i adpated for our profession (Telecom):
Have you ever wondered why programmers have so many strong communities like Stackoverflow, devRant, Reddit, etc. and Telecom Professionals do not have it?
What is your opionion?
Right.
Programmers forums have a lot of contributors, everybody is part of the platform, and also, most of them they are for free.
I have very old subscription in Telecom platforms, in most of those they need you to get credit, but you will never to reach to some level where most of the valuable information is shared and discussed, so after some time with struggling to get more credits, you will find that you waste more time than it is worth, and at the end you haven’t got the information your are looking for, so you simply will abandon.
I think one reason why telecom forums have not strong communities is the historical behavior of telecom professionals.
They are used to work in projects where information should never be shared. Maybe a boss demanded it, maybe the professional himself use to have this kind of thinking.
They do not realize what good place they have to contact other friends in telecom, and teach and also learn together.
In programming forums people go there, login and to ask for help in the form of queries, some tip in a project, etc.
In almost all telecom forums, people only login when forced (like the ads removal approach we use in telecomhall - if logged, will not see ads). And most of the times only to ask for Docs (almost always illegal docs) and Software Cracks (illegal/proprietary). And theres also a percentage of professionals that only go to “get a job” - even not knowing you personally want recommendations…
The telecomHall is a dream. Sharing is Caring as some say. 
We (a group of friends in a group behind telecomHall forum) believe it is possible, and we are making history, and building the best free webforum focused in Telecom.
telecomHall Community:
I am pretty sure that this dream will continue, always free and providing answers (not docs / sw) for those who want.
Yes I agree,
Now TelecomHall becomes more active, and the community is expanding, however it needs more dedication and members contribution to share and learn together.
Personally, my 1st steps with telecom, were through telecomhall, I ve learned a lot from the tricks, and especially the free tools sharew in the platform.
I hope that this will continue, and this place will be always the best for whoever wants to learn and have more telecom skills and knowledge.
I’ve been wondering about that recently. Professionals in other areas like coding, for example, there are a lot of online communities. I’m about to graduate from engineering and
I’ve been looking for online communities, this is the only one I’ve found so far.
I agree with Leo. But is not only that project information is confidential, is that all information has the confidential label on it. My thought is that maybe O-RAN will start to make a difference in this. I came from a time where almost every vendor had it own standard. And you had to work for motorola, Ericsson, Alcatel, etc to have information on how they work (unless you were a spy). We have came a long way, where telecommunication standards are open. Still vendor specific information is mostly out of public domain.
We need community. In my journey as rnpo, I found myself asking other engineers for help on LinkedIn. I was excited to find telecom hall.
The reason we don’t have community is because info and vendor info was different and kept private back in the day. But now we have a lot of similarities and it’s open information.
Restriction to share is a big thing indeed, especially if you work for vendor. Lot of software running in the background checking on you.
But i believe in general telecom world is just too different from programmer’s. It’s much more “corporate”. Companies we work for are competing with each other - vendors, operators. By answering somebody’s question you may just be helping your competitor. Your superiors or clients might see your answer on the forum (or even easier - whatsapp group). Willingness to help may hit you back really bad.
And other major difference, - it’s just so easier to become a programmer, there are so much more programmers in the world (~25 millions and growing). You may be a dentist in Nepal, but having talent, computer and some internet access you are good to go. It’s really easy to start programming as a hobby, for fun. Read stuff, try to replicate, share your findings with others. If things go well, in a while this “fun” brings you money. Now telecom … at least talking about telecom operators … totally different story. You may spend a year reading O’Reilly’s books, but unless you live in a right city, studied at a right place or have a good relationship with somebody who is already onboard, most probably it won’t really take you anywhere (at least in Brazil). And you can’t just do something by yourself hoping it will be useful for somebody in the future … without access to telecom world, you simply won’t know what kind of issues people have, which problems are there to solve.
But perhaps it will change soon. Seems like telecom professionals are slowly migrating to programmers. Every time we see more automatization, more tools being developed … replacing telecom professionals. So, probably in a while the comunity will get better :).
Regards
Hi @vitalii , I totally agree with what you said, however, some comments.
Yes, I believe that this “non-collaboration” scenario should change soon, because telecom is changing.
There are also millions of Telecom professionals - not just engineers, consultants, etc.
For example we have Technicians, who work at ISPs in the most remote places, who never have a place where they can ask someone about a question. Not to mention geeks that want to discuss technology.
And on the question of not wanting the answers to be eventually seen by a boss, just create an anonymous login, with a nickname like the NEO of the movie Matrix. (Nothing in your profile is shared - not even the email - which is only visible to you).
This will allow no one to know who you are, and you will be able to participate actively - teaching (responding) or learning (reading).
Note: it is clear that being anonymous gives you the right to post anything illegal or proprietary - and this is what I like most in this community - the moderators are on top, do not let anything illegal or proprietary be shared.
Congratulations to those responsible, I definitely found the telecom community I was looking for here.
Yes, right dear @RFGirl.
And for those who are concerned about privacy, please note that you can even change your username, name and all the other information. In other words, you can participate actively, and nobody will see -who you are (not even the e-mail is visible to anyone)!
And of course, you are right too. We keep our eyes open. And also, this webforum platform allows every user to be automatically “promoted” to moderators - only need is participation. 
Interesting discussion, What I can relate is the practice of sharing information is not encouraged in the industries due to fear of information being used against you. But with the direction of hardware RAN towards Open-RAN, hope this initiative encourage more open discussion across vendors and also network operators.
In short, we can ask the hardware and network to be ‘open’. Unfortunately, among us telecom engineers also difficult to open and share information.
Credit should be given to Leonardo and TelecomHall, perhaps the only online forum that’s very active in information sharing.
It is important to create a strong and broad forum for telecommunications engineers and technicians, so that they can not only discuss everyday issues, but also update what the news concerns. The telecommunications sector is very dynamic and has a universal information matrix. Sharing knowledge makes us more united and stronger.
I write from Angola - Africa
Just adding some point here…
Nothing against website that sells courses (often offering a “free” sample course)… Nothing against all (good) Trainers… they have to do something for a living… and I know some great trainers… This is not the point.
Only thing is: Why people DO NOT value what they have for free, and quality, like our Community?
This is somewhat frustrating, but regardless of this general behavior, we’ll keep walking… for over 20 years
Very simple ans…
Technology may be great …but if it doesn’t sell like data science then there’s no demand …and since no demand …there’s no supply
Yes @Koushik_Ray, I agree.
The only point that really intrigues me is how do people pay hundreds of dollars for some “specific” training if in places like this forum here they get this information for free? 
The Telecommunications area is for “self-taught” people, if you’re not like that, better look for another area. 
Just see how it works in companies - you have to “find a way” to learn everything, and quickly, and alone… Training are often only introduction, you need to go deep by yourself in any matter.
And that’s where my doubt comes in: we have a perfect place for this, our community, which is the BIGGEST in the World for Telecommunications, with everything FREE. And even so, only a few dozen actively participate. 
Not to mention, of course, those who fall by parachute just asking for books, documents, etc… They don’t understand the treasure they have, the Community.
There are too many questions here!
I remember reading somewhere that the best way to get the right answer is not to ask a question, but to post the wrong answer!
I see that technique a lot in “programming” forums, people will appear out of nowhere to correct you! And the discussions that arise are great for future reference!
It’s called the Godwin’s law.
Sorry for the meme, but it apply here. 
But now, seriously: you’re right @phgmacedo.
I hope our Community can keep following the “traditional” way - serious and professional.
It’s by far the most professional community telecom I ever found.
If you know a complete telecom community like this, please share.
Awesome thinking.
