For a long time now, I’ve been predicting the proliferation of specialized networked devices – or Tridgets – that pull data from the Web and are managed through a PC or mobile handset. The network, PCs, handsets, and data are now all in place, so the only things still lacking for a massive rollout of Trivergence are the devices and the inspiration.

A couple of companies are now tackling the device issue. Bug Labs is selling a set of modules, called the BUG, that can be snapped-together to create customized devices, and the long-awaited Chumby has finally hit the market. The Chumby is a soft-skinned little device with a screen and speaker, Wi-Fi connection, Linux operating system, and a set of buttons and sensors with vaguely defined functions. Both the BUG and the Chumby are being marketed as digital Erector Sets for computer hackers, rather than products that actually do something useful out of the box. Or as David Pogue, in his recent review of the Chumby, put it, “This weird little invention is amorphous, flexible and freaky.”

So this takes us to inspiration. All the pieces are in place to build specialized Tridgets and the only thing missing are the killer apps. Right now, most of the applications for the Chumby are widgets that turn the device into an alarm clock, radio receiver, weather forecasting station, headline news service and other functions rooted in past experience. The situation is not unlike the early 80s when people were trying to figure out uses for a home computer. There was lots of talk about recipe databases and programs to balance checkbooks, but it took a while for the “real” applications to wind their way into our consciousness.

I suspect the same thing will happen with products like the Chumby and the BUG. A lot of bright kids are going to say Ah-Ha and invent things that we have never thought of, but will seem indispensable once we see them. Even more exciting is that the cost of these development kits is low enough to appeal to hackers across the multi-polar world, including the emerging countries. Now that some of the most inaccessible places on earth are blanketed with wireless networks, we may find that the innovation in Tridgets takes place across a highly dispersed development community focused on both local and global needs.