Nokia have opened a crowd sourcing initiative, "Design by Community", to find out what form customers would like future Nokia phones to take. Each week, members of the public can vote on different aspects of mobile phone design. See below for all the details and links.

This week, Nokia's official blog, "Nokia Conversations", has opened up a community project, called "Design by Community", to ask members of the public to shape the future development of mobile phone design.

The website states:

"Do you want to help create a smartphone concept device of the future? Between March and May 2010 we want to harness the collective thoughts of the Conversations readership to map out a concept device of the future. This isn't just about creating the next-gen smartphone, we want you to think beyond that. To avoid creating some kind of unweildy beast, we've created a six-step process where you get to vote for the features and functions you think are most important"

During each week of the initiative, people will be able to vote on aspects of a distinct category of smartphone design. The schedule for voting is as follows:

• 15^th March - Display & User Interface
• 22^nd March - Size & Shape
• 29^th March - Materials
• 5^th April - Operating System
• 12^th April - Connectivity
• 19^th April - Camera
• 26^th April - Enhancements

The voting takes the form of a series of sliders which users adjust as they see fit, each slider relates to an aspect of a design category.

You can get involved here

David Gilson, AAS