1. Symbian
Platform for Converged Devices
And
The Age of Participation
Dietmar Tallroth
General Counsel
Symbian
Foundation

2. Symbian Foundation in a Nutshell
The Symbian Foundation is a non-profit organization
that provides, manages and unifies the Symbian Platform
The Symbian Platform is the most used smart phone OS,
which has been shipped in est. more than 300 Mio devices
world wide
Our goal is to be a truly open
software platform

3. Some Facts About Symbian Foundation
q Founded by Nokia, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, AT&T, NTT
DoComo, Vodafone, Texas Instruments, ST-Ericsson at the
beginning of 2009.
q Fujitsu and Qualcomm Innovation Center joined the Board
of Directors in autumn 2009
q Over 200 member companies
q Governance
q By Board consisting of Directors named by founding
companies
q By four councils (Architecture, Release, Roadmap, UI)
partly with nominated, partly with elected members
q Initial platform contribution was made by Nokia, Sony-
Ericsson and DoCoMo and included Symbian OS, Nokia S60
software and MOAP(S) technology
q “Cleaned up” from dependencies on 3rd party IP
q Released under open source license (EPL) in February 2010
Copyrightmonths ahead of schedule)
(4 © 2010 3

4. No H1 H2 H1
w 2010 2010 2011
Evolution of the
Symbian Platform
Kits Comple Handsets
available te From H1 2010
S^ Now
2 The first platform release hosted
by the Symbian Foundation
Kits Complete Handsets
available Q2 2010 From H2 2010
S^
3 Simpler, faster UI
Improved music & video experiences
Kits Complete Handsets
Q2 2010 H2 2010 From H1 2011
S^
4 A whole new touch UI
Qt adopted for native app development
March
2010
Copyright © 2010 4

5. What We Are About
Copyright © 2010 5

6. Our Aspiration
q Why a “truly open platform”
q For the pace of innovation
q To go “beyond smart phones”
q To be a true technical enabler
for the Age of Participation
Copyright © 2010 6

7. From Converging Industries
To
Dawn of the Age of Participation

8. What does “Age of Participation” mean?

9. It Is Happening Now
q Open Source
q Twitter
q Participate in the life of others
q New form of political tool (e.g. protest in Iran, Gaza ships)
q YouTube
q Search for “Sarah Palin parody” gives 2.500 hits in YouTube
q Remix Culture (Laurence Lessig)
q Empowering the Poor
q Brisbane Times: mobile phones help decide Indian elections, enabling
a member of the “untouchable caste” to become Chief Minister
q Mobile phone use does not require literacy
q Are used to circumvent establish power structures
q “Valkaama” the first open source movie
q Mobile uses in Africa
q “Mobile Phone reporters”
q Money transfer by phone
q Phones as music production and distribution tools
q Also the “Dark Side” has detected the possibilities
q Globally organized crime & terrorism
Copyright © 2010 9

10. Elements
q Information – Education – Participation
q Creation for the Commons
q Disappearing geographical boundaries
q Disappearing social boundaries
q The global company and the global consumer
q Producers and consumers turn into participants (e.g. Co-
creation in product development)
Copyright © 2010 10

11. Are we prepared ?
q Case study: intellectual property rights
q Article 1, Section 8 U.S. Constitution, says that “Congress
shall have the Power:-
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by
securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive
Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;”
q Two romantic notions
q About individuals (“Authors and Inventors”)
q About creation as an act of
“Incentive and Response”
Copyright © 2010 11

12. IPR Laws: “The First Hack”
q Instead of the individual, the Rights
Aggregator has become the central role in IPR
q As investor and
publisher (“content rights aggregator”)
q As investor and
manufacturer (“innovation rights aggregator”)
q As investor and
licensor (e.g. the “patent troll”)
IPR aggregation is an investment-driven
industry activity like others.
q And we see creative activity on a massive scale that is not
triggered by legal incentive
Copyright © 2010 12

13. IPR Laws: “The Second Hack”
q Open Source licensing is an example of of IPR law “hack”, too
q As an attempt to create rules for community driven creation,
they
q Introduce a fairness principle
q Try to protect the “community” and the “common asset”
q Tend to be hostile towards assertion of exclusive rights
(like patents)
q Most notably, open source offers an alternative approach to
“recovery of R&D investment” (vs the patent system)
Copyright © 2010 13

14. Thesis 1: Hacks Are Not Enough
q Hacks tend to be clumsy
q The notion of rights aggregation starts to look outdated
q Joint ownership is more of a problem than a solution
q Example:
q Can the Linux Kernel ever change license ?
q Can Symbian ever change license ?
q We (especially: we the lawyers in the ICT industries) are
challenged with
q Can we come up with ideas for genuine legal recognition
and protection of community assets?
q Can we come up with new models for R&D investment
recovery? (That are better suited to joint R&D/community
creation)
Copyright © 2010 14

15. Thesis 2: The Right Time is Now
q One doesn’t have to like what is coming
q There are still many counter forces
q But there is a generation coming for which participation is as
natural as breathing
q One might have mistaken the first car as “just another form of
steam engine”…
q … and missed the revolutionary effect
of individual traffic
q The consequences are far reaching
q touching all areas of law (not only IPR),
economics and politics
q The task will be huge –
and thus it is time to start
the discussion
Copyright © 2010 15

16. Welcome To The
Age of Participation