The independent non-profit Symbian Developer Cooperative (Symbian DevCo) has launched today and immediately became a member of the Symbian Foundation. The new organisation is open to all individuals; participation is free of charge.
Anyone who joins Symbian DevCo as an 'associate' has the opportunity to stand for election to the Symbian Councils; this type of opportunity was previously only available to employees of member companies.
Lars Kurth, Community Manager at the Symbian Foundation as well as founding Board Member and Secretary of Symbian DevCo, said "An individual voice can be lost so easily in the fervent buzz of a community. DevCo now ensures Associates will be heard and the structure we’ve put in place will help bring their issues and suggestions directly to the attention of Symbian’s governing bodies."
Sebastian Kügler, President and founding Board Member of Symbian DevCo, said "Our vision is to create an organisation where open discourse is valued among its participants and contacts are made between people and companies working with Symbian. By open sourcing the Symbian platform, the Symbian Foundation has opened up the participation model to everyone who wants to work with it. However, in order to fully leverage this opportunity, a thriving ecosystem is needed as well. Symbian DevCo is an agent and advocate of that for individual contributors in the Symbian community."