the story behind
THE STORY BEHIND version 1.0
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HOW IT ALL STARTED In December 2012, Phonebloks founder Dave Hakkens discovered that his compact camera had broken. Dave loved that camera. It took great pictures and it was easy to use. Spending money on getting a new one seemed such a waste. In any case, before purchasing a new one, Dave was going to try and repair his camera. Taking the camera apart Dave found that there was only one part truly broken; the lens motor. So, to fix it, all that had to be done was to replace it. This was something that was easier said then done. No repair shop or electronics store could fix it or had the part for sale. Nor could Dave find it online or through the manufacturer for purchase. Everywhere he looked and asked he got the advice to just buy a new camera. Around the same time in, January 2013, Dave was in the process of beginning work on what was going to evolve into his graduation project for Design Academy Eindhoven. Being interested in sustainability, the environment, recycling and design, as well as being an advocate for technology, he thought about how he could integrate these interests into a framework that encompassed his ethos of trying to make a better world, by making better things. One thing that, through research, was brought to Dave’s attention was the constant global increase in waste-streams. Particularly from the electronics manufacturers sector. The constant whole-widget upgrades that we as consumers are lead to are adding to these waste-streams at an alarming rate and one of the biggest contributors to these streams are mobile phones.Taking these two ‘wrongs’; the unrepairable camera and mobile phones excessive contribution to waste-streams, Dave started working on a mobile phone that would not add to these waste-streams, that would not need to be whole-widget replaced if just one component broke and that, because of greater positive impact, would be made for the entire
FIXED SIZES
world. The idea was ’A Phone Worth Keeping’ and Phonebloks was born.
Dave went on to develop Phonebloks as a concept, as well as the website and film. All explained the concept and it made up his graduation project, but from the get-go Dave felt that this project could, and should, have a greater reach. Without any funding or patents, Dave quickly realised that he would not be able to build the phone himself. What he could do
was to show existing manufacturers that there was, and is, a need for a phone like this. On September 10, 2013, Dave uploaded the film, explaining Phonebloks, to YouTube and the reaction was phenomenal. In it’s first 24 hours online the film had over 1 million views and momentum continued. This lead to a lot of attention from media outlets all over the world. All this attention, although good, lead to phonebloks.com crashing. Not being able to fix it himself, Dave once again took to the internet and tweeted:
Gawin Dapper replied, helped get the site back online and after that joined the team as Chief Technical Officer, backing up Dave on the technical side of Phonebloks, among other things. It was not only media and end consumers that took notice of the launch. Mobile phone manufacturers also liked what they saw. Dave got a lot of phone calls and e-mails from interested companies and naturally, since Dave wanted and still wants, a phone to be built, the interest was mutual. One company that stood out from the beginning was Google owned Motorola. They had been working on a modular phone for about a year before Phonebloks launched. When they approached Dave, telling him what they were doing, committing to developing their phone in the open and wanting the help from Phonebloks, they seemed the perfect fit as the first partner.  Around this time Tomas Halberstad sent an e-mail to Phonebloks expressing his admiration and offering his services, in any way Phonebloks could use them. After a couple of e-mails back and forth between him and Gawin, Tomas joined the team to handle research around and writing for the Phonebloks blog, though ending up doing all sorts of things. Dave, Gawin and Tomas are now our core team. Since the film was uploaded to YouTube, a lot of people have supported Phonebloks and there has also been a lot of communication back and forth; giving feedback, sharing ideas, suggesting potential features and so on. With the film, we wanted people to show the industry that there is a need for a phone like Phonebloks. We also wanted and still want, these people to have a big part in shaping what this phone is going to be. For this purpose we created our online community. On it, anyone and everyone can talk about Phonebloks, guiding the organisations ideas and views when it comes to talking to, partnering with and influencing companies that want to build a modular mobile phone. The greater our number, the greater our impact in trying to give the world a phone worth keeping.
OUR VISION We love technology. We embrace technological evolution. We truly believe that technology can help make the world a better place, for all. But, for this to happen everyone needs access to this technology. We focus on electronics in general and mobile phones in particular. The sociality, educational qualities and levels of productivity available through mobile phones and tablets are, to us, unprecedented. With consumer electronics comes, as Dave found out, a problem. Namely that of electronic waste. Electronic waste streams are among the fastest growing waste streams there is and mobile phones are one of the biggest culprits in that sector. This is a serious problem and it needs to be addressed by the mobile phone industry. Because, if it does not, great environmental disasters lie ahead. We believe that our idea of a modular mobile phone is the first step in reducing these hazardous waste streams; you discard one module instead of the whole phone when one function breaks. If one also could build these modules from environmentally friendly and recyclable materials, well, then we could keep from adding to the waste streams all together.
HOW WE WILL TRY TO ACHIEVE THIS What we at Phonebloks want to do is start (if it has not already started) and be a factor in helping the mobile phone industry accelerate the process of developing and producing such a phone. Phonebloks is not a mobile phone manufacturer. Producing mobile phones requires knowledge, understanding and great many resources. Existing manufacturers have these three in abundance. This means that the structure for producing a phone like Phonebloks is already out there. Using this structure, instead of building our own, would mean changing an industry for the better and getting the phone produced and available in a shorter time frame. Our goal, apart from getting this phone produced, is to be the platform where these existing manufacturers connect with each other and to also be a hub where manufacturing companies can connect with the public; the members of the Phonebloks community. We want to involve as many companies and people as possible because we believe that this will make the development and production process more open and the end product better, for all. Though working with companies in the industry, Phonebloks wants to remain independent. We will ensure this by not being financially dependent on any company or organisation. Independence will keep us from going in any direction other than the one our community, together with our core values, dictates. We will try to influence the industry with knowledge and size, using our community and social media tools to educate, inform and engage as many people as possible.
This is our story. This is what Phonebloks is. We are an online community with the sole purpose of embracing both technology and planet Earth. We want to educate people on why a phone like this is necessary and we want to help the industry reduce its waste streams. We are going to keep gathering partners to increase our chances of success and we are going to keep gathering members to make our voice as loud as possible. We are Phonebloks, and so are you.
XEDFIXED SIZESSIZES
HOW IT ALL STARTED In December 2012, Phonebloks founder Dave Hakkens discovered that his compact camera had broken. Dave loved that camera. It took great pictures and it was easy to use. Spending money on getting a new one seemed such a waste. In any case, before purchasing a new one, Dave was going to try and repair his camera. Taking the camera apart Dave found that there was only one part truly broken; the lens motor. So, to fix it, all that had to be done was to replace it. This was something that was easier said then done. No repair shop or electronics store could fix it or had the part for sale. Nor could Dave find it online or through the manufacturer for purchase. Everywhere he looked and asked he got the advice to just buy a new camera. Around the same time in, January 2013, Dave was in the process of beginning work on what was going to evolve into his graduation project for Design Academy Eindhoven. Being interested in sustainability, the environment, recycling and design, as well as being an advocate for technology, he thought about how he could integrate these interests into a framework that encompassed his ethos of trying to make a better world, by making better things. One thing that, through research, was brought to Dave’s attention was the constant global increase in waste-streams. Particularly from the electronics manufacturers sector. The constant whole-widget upgrades that we as consumers are lead to are adding to these waste-streams at an alarming rate and one of the biggest contributors to these streams are mobile phones.Taking these two ‘wrongs’; the unrepairable camera and mobile phones excessive contribution to waste-streams, Dave started working on a mobile phone that would not add to these waste-streams, that would not need to be whole-widget replaced if just one component broke and that, because of greater positive impact, would be made for the entire
FIXED SIZES
world. The idea was ’A Phone Worth Keeping’ and Phonebloks was born.
Dave went on to develop Phonebloks as a concept, as well as the website and film. All explained the concept and it made up his graduation project, but from the get-go Dave felt that this project could, and should, have a greater reach. Without any funding or patents, Dave quickly realised that he would not be able to build the phone himself. What he could do
was to show existing manufacturers that there was, and is, a need for a phone like this. On September 10, 2013, Dave uploaded the film, explaining Phonebloks, to YouTube and the reaction was phenomenal. In it’s first 24 hours online the film had over 1 million views and momentum continued. This lead to a lot of attention from media outlets all over the world. All this attention, although good, lead to phonebloks.com crashing. Not being able to fix it himself, Dave once again took to the internet and tweeted:
Gawin Dapper replied, helped get the site back online and after that joined the team as Chief Technical Officer, backing up Dave on the technical side of Phonebloks, among other things. It was not only media and end consumers that took notice of the launch. Mobile phone manufacturers also liked what they saw. Dave got a lot of phone calls and e-mails from interested companies and naturally, since Dave wanted and still wants, a phone to be built, the interest was mutual. One company that stood out from the beginning was Google owned Motorola. They had been working on a modular phone for about a year before Phonebloks launched. When they approached Dave, telling him what they were doing, committing to developing their phone in the open and wanting the help from Phonebloks, they seemed the perfect fit as the first partner.  Around this time Tomas Halberstad sent an e-mail to Phonebloks expressing his admiration and offering his services, in any way Phonebloks could use them. After a couple of e-mails back and forth between him and Gawin, Tomas joined the team to handle research around and writing for the Phonebloks blog, though ending up doing all sorts of things. Dave, Gawin and Tomas are now our core team. Since the film was uploaded to YouTube, a lot of people have supported Phonebloks and there has also been a lot of communication back and forth; giving feedback, sharing ideas, suggesting potential features and so on. With the film, we wanted people to show the industry that there is a need for a phone like Phonebloks. We also wanted and still want, these people to have a big part in shaping what this phone is going to be. For this purpose we created our online community. On it, anyone and everyone can talk about Phonebloks, guiding the organisations ideas and views when it comes to talking to, partnering with and influencing companies that want to build a modular mobile phone. The greater our number, the greater our impact in trying to give the world a phone worth keeping.
OUR VISION We love technology. We embrace technological evolution. We truly believe that technology can help make the world a better place, for all. But, for this to happen everyone needs access to this technology. We focus on electronics in general and mobile phones in particular. The sociality, educational qualities and levels of productivity available through mobile phones and tablets are, to us, unprecedented. With consumer electronics comes, as Dave found out, a problem. Namely that of electronic waste. Electronic waste streams are among the fastest growing waste streams there is and mobile phones are one of the biggest culprits in that sector. This is a serious problem and it needs to be addressed by the mobile phone industry. Because, if it does not, great environmental disasters lie ahead. We believe that our idea of a modular mobile phone is the first step in reducing these hazardous waste streams; you discard one module instead of the whole phone when one function breaks. If one also could build these modules from environmentally friendly and recyclable materials, well, then we could keep from adding to the waste streams all together.
HOW WE WILL TRY TO ACHIEVE THIS What we at Phonebloks want to do is start (if it has not already started) and be a factor in helping the mobile phone industry accelerate the process of developing and producing such a phone. Phonebloks is not a mobile phone manufacturer. Producing mobile phones requires knowledge, understanding and great many resources. Existing manufacturers have these three in abundance. This means that the structure for producing a phone like Phonebloks is already out there. Using this structure, instead of building our own, would mean changing an industry for the better and getting the phone produced and available in a shorter time frame. Our goal, apart from getting this phone produced, is to be the platform where these existing manufacturers connect with each other and to also be a hub where manufacturing companies can connect with the public; the members of the Phonebloks community. We want to involve as many companies and people as possible because we believe that this will make the development and production process more open and the end product better, for all. Though working with companies in the industry, Phonebloks wants to remain independent. We will ensure this by not being financially dependent on any company or organisation. Independence will keep us from going in any direction other than the one our community, together with our core values, dictates. We will try to influence the industry with knowledge and size, using our community and social media tools to educate, inform and engage as many people as possible.
This is our story. This is what Phonebloks is. We are an online community with the sole purpose of embracing both technology and planet Earth. We want to educate people on why a phone like this is necessary and we want to help the industry reduce its waste streams. We are going to keep gathering partners to increase our chances of success and we are going to keep gathering members to make our voice as loud as possible. We are Phonebloks, and so are you.
