Schulze & Webb (declaration of interest - Matt Webb is a mate) have launched Olinda, a social radio

Olinda is a prototype digital radio that has your social network built in, showing you the stations your friends are listening to. It’s customisable with modular hardware, and aims to provoke discussion on the future and design of radios for the home.

Social Networks in Physical Products

Six lights on Olinda show when a close friend is listening to the radio, using wifi and Radio Pop, the BBC’s website for sharing ‘now playing’ information. Each light is a button: you can tune in to listen along with them, discovering new stations via your social network.

Consumer Electronics learning from the web
On the Web, users are in charge of customising and adapting their experience … Olinda attempts to learn from this. Its hardware interface already joins the base unit with the friends module. By buying extra modules – or by making their own using the open interface – listeners can adapt their product over time, perhaps adding a remote control or recording

So bloody clever, yet so beautifully simple, and elegant. We’re increasingly seek greater integration of our offline lives with our online lives and social networks, and to be able to extend and customise our applications, services and products as we choose. So Jack & Matt have looked to embrace the online experience & marry this with a physical product.

It’s a cracking example of how everyday appliances could become fully networked, social appliances - with open APIs and modular design encouraging further modification and innovation. How long before this becomes the norm, and it’s an integral part of our standard repertoire of consumer electronics….perhaps where iPod become We-Pod?