Twice a month we run something called the Symbian Stammtisch. We’d like to encourage you to start up a Stammtisch too! Local Stammtisch would be a way for more people to engage in a discussion about the future of the OS and for us to hear more about what people want from Symbian.

Stammtisch is a German word for “the regulars’ table” and is an informal forum for discussing Symbian related topics. By forum, I don’t mean a website with forum software. The Stammtisch is a real, live meeting in a pub, specifically in our case The Crown, very close to our office.

Every Stammtisch has a topic, and we bring a set of questions to the table. The purpose is not really to answer the questions, but to encourage discussion within an area. We write down ideas and insights and try to promote them internally and externally. We are still playing around with the format to try to get even more out of the Stammtisch.

Last week the topic was “How do we avoid chasing last year’s trends?” Because of the “adverse weather conditions” (as Britons call it when snow is visible on the ground), turnout was quite low, but we had about 10 people from Nokia and Symbian Foundation there.

We started with a good chat about today’s trends are, with a brief discourse into what the word “trend” actually means. We could easily identify trends within software, hardware form factors and consumer services, and by only looking back only a few years, it is clear that few things persist in the mobile industry.

For example, in 2005 flip phones were dominant, while in 2006 sliders were big. Since 2007 we’ve seen the touch tablet form factor, and in 2009 touch + qwerty became popular. What will phones in 2011 look like?

Apps were obviously huge in 2009. Analysts seem to think they will still be in a few years but on the other hand web browsers are getting better, so we may see a swing back towards the web. In fact, we had an entire Stammtisch about this issue some time back.

After every Stammtisch, we collect answers to questions and other notes. We type them up and organize them, and then we select the five or so best ideas to promote to the Ideas website. This may consist of features we would like to see in the Symbian Platform or projects or other initiatives we should launch within the Symbian Foundation.

We find that having external parties attend has been a great way to improve the conversation. It is always hard to think outside the box, and getting new perspectives on issues we are having really help us out. After all, the Symbian Foundation is here to serve our community. So if you’re in London, please come by! The schedule for the Stammtisch is here.

Something we’ve been thinking of is helping to get Symbian Stammtisches started in other cities around the world. If you’re interested, write a comment and we’ll get in touch with you!

See you at the Stammtisch!