Meme Education is one of a number of start-ups created by former Symbian employees. However, unlike most Symbian inspired companies, Meme Education is focused on developer training and tools.

The impetus for Meme Education started from a discussion between Mark Jacobs and Ian Weston of Majinate, the company that administers the Accredited Symbian Developer examinations. "We had developed some ideas for Symbian OS training and tools," says Mark. "At the same time, Ian was looking for someone to run the Accredited Symbian Developer exams in North America. We believe that Symbian OS has great potential in the North American market and Meme Education grew out of that."

Mark sees Symbian's focus on mass market devices and the requisite bill of materials for mid-range Symbian OS phones as a key to growth in North America. "I attended the recent Forum Nokia TechTour in Seattle," noted Mark. "It was interesting to see Cingular at that event and I believe this is the start of significant growth for Symbian in the US." Mark notes that US carriers tend introduce their own variations of standards, in the area of messaging and device management in particular, and place much more emphasis on the UI; not just look and feel, but specific interaction scenarios. "An interesting problem for Symbian OS is multitasking as the carrier UI standards are written from the perspective of single tasked devices. Coupled with the lost of momentum in CDMA EV-DV adoption, the progress of Symbian licensees into the US market has been slow".. With cheaper Symbian OS phones, more configurable UIs, and higher shipment volumes Mark believes Symbian OS devices are becoming more attractive to US operators.

Meme Education's staff includes a number of ex-Symbian personnel. They currently focus on supporting the Accredited Symbian Developer exam and providing training, through public courses and tailored in-house offerings. Mark has been pleasantly surprised by the level of interest. "We have a already been approached by several local companies and the interest in Symbian OS training appears to be high," says Mark. "I believe Symbian is talking to over 100 partners in the US, so I see plenty of potential for growth."

One of the attraction to Mark and the Meme Education team in working in North America is the atmosphere around Symbian OS there. "Many of us left Symbian as the company matured. It was losing the radical culture it had in the 1990s to accommodate the demands placed on it by licensees, such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson," says Mark. "Some of us like that frontier spirit and the North American market has much of the feel of those early days at Symbian, here we are trailblazers and that makes it exciting."

In addition to the training and the exams Meme Education is also writing Accredited Symbian Developer Primer, a book that will provide an exam primer, as part of Symbian's wider Symbian Academy initiative. "The book will be designed to provide developer wanting to take the exam with all the background information they need to gain the understanding necessary to pass the exam," says Mark. Just in case anyone might get the idea that the primer will allow them to breeze the exam, Mark explained that "the nature of the exam means developers need to thoroughly understand Symbian OS. The technology behind the examination probes a developers knowledge, as the questions asked are selected based on earlier answers. Multiple choice is also deceptive, it can be more difficult than simply providing a written answer, as the options can include misleading answers that really challenge a developer's knowledge."

Beyond the primer Meme Education has its eye on additional support for developers through tools. "We have been watching the development of Carbide with interest," says Mark. "As it is based on Eclipse it offers us the ability to provide additional developer tools through its plug in architecture. We currently have a few ideas in development, such as a tool to help developers confirm their applications capability requirements, as well as some other ideas to ease the process of gaining Symbian Signed."

More information on Meme Education, Accredited Symbian Developer exams and training can be found at www.meme-education.com.