Some of you might have noticed the hashtag #phonebloks flying around the social media world yesterday, and wondered where the hell it all came from so suddenly. The answer? It was a social media ‘thunderclap‘ initiated by Phonebloks. Phonebloks started out as a simple idea just over a month ago. Dave Hakkens, the man behind the idea, basically wanted to create a phone that produced less waste – a phone we could keep.

The Thunderclap in question is like a pre-planned social media wave. You simply sign up to support Phonebloks (or any other cause) and give them permission to post on your social media sites on your behalf. And then, on a pre-determined date (yesterday at 11h00 local time), all of the social media accounts that registered automatically send out a status or tweet with hashtag #phonebloks embedded in it.

In the case of Phonebloks, 979,294 people signed up and created a social media reach of 381,783,542 people.

Is it worth the buzz? Phonebloks is simply awesome. Too good to be true, almost. The plan is to do for hardware what Google did to mobile software – create an open source platform for independent developers to create components to their heart’s content. Basically, an exo-skeleton of a phone where YOU choose what components you use.

Say, if you’re keen on social media, you get a massive battery/wifi component, and ditch the camera. Or, if you’re old and your feet hurt, you may want to get a super-size battery, and ditch everything else (that way you never have to get up).

The idea was such a hit that Phonebloks more than achieved their goals – and are already in talks with Motorola to produce the world’s first open-source phone. Have a look at the two clips below – Phonebloks is coming.

[Source : YouTube, Engadget, ThunderClap, PhoneBloks]