I caught up with Symbian Exec Director Lee Williams this morning and put a few questions to him about where the foundation is currently at and, in particular, the importance of Fujitsu and Qualcomm’s new commitment to Symbian.

The discussion took in the two new members, the role of Symbian in delivering openness, and the broadening cultural base of the foundation.

The first thing I asked though was did he feel he’d taken a lot of criticism over the past six months and is it now coming good?

LW. I think that’s a fair thing to say. The only areas we really take a beating though are with the press and mostly with the North American press which seems to dominate discussion in this area, and the UK press. What’s been happening though is very much a culmination of six months of work. Things take time and six months is about right.

HS: So how do things feel at the end of this particular week?

LW: I’m exhausted. The last ten days have been a real push for me in particular. Last minute deals across the board, calls from Japan and San Diego, the analyst tour before that. And sorry, I always take a few hours to myself and to spend time with co-workers. We got it all done.

HS: What does it mean to have Qualcomm and Fujitsu on board?

LW: It fills the empty seats and I mean more than just having two more members. In terms of the balance of the foundation governance this is what we set out to achieve. They join as funding partners so the funding helps us a great deal but this means we are stronger for the eco-system, much more so than with our original intended members Motorola and LG. If I’d been asked at the start which I’d rather have I would have gone for Qualcomm and Fujitsu.

Qualcomm is a tremendous hardware, technology and silicon provider and is a real complement to the eco-system and can take us into places where Symbian has not been able to go in North America, Korea and China. It really rounds out the eco-system.

Fujitsu, for those who don’t know the company, is much more than a mobile phone manufacturer. Main frames, PC, infrastructure, this is a very large Japanese conglomerate not just in the mobile space. The company is very dedicated to Symbian and is already lining up contributions, and pioneering in LTE.

HS: What about the challenge of openness for a company like Qualcomm for example which has around 40,000 patents?

LW: It means for the first time that Qualcomm is embracing openness at a completely new level. And it is a realization for them that they need to expand their offer. QuIC (Qualcomm Innovation Center) has been set up so they can operate without the encumbrance of their IP portfolio.

HS: And the different cultures in the Symbian community? Is that something of a challenge?

LW: Absolutely. You need look no further than the celebration we had just after the board meeting to see the dynamics are changing. We are strengthening the team with people from very different cultures. In the celebration there were people from San Diego, people a little like me. Jeans, open necked shirts, sun tan. You hear the occasional hey man! And dude! creeps in there too. And there in the same social setting we have an interpreter. Fujitsu comes from a different culture and business practice. And we need an interpreter. What it means for the community is encapsulated in that setting. We need to be more embracing, more cognizant of differences and work with and engage it for the whole community.

HS: What about the potential conflicts of working with closed and open cultures?

LW: I don’t feel that as a source of conflict. The foundation’s role is to lead people into working openly. LEAD. I use that word advisedly. The more closed a company, the stronger an opportunity we have to help them. I don’t see it as a conflict. I see it as a higher dependency on our role.

Thank you.