We have this delightful musical Santa snow globe that we bring out for the holidays. It got me thinking about collectibles and decorative doodads.
People love snow globes. People love weird, creepy snow globes. People have collected snow globes for 200 years. Businessmen travel far and wide and pick up little plastic ones for their children from Hartford to Hawaii and everywhere in between.
Is there a digital version of the snow globe? Is there a silly, beautiful digital tchotchke that could play the same role as the snow globe? I can't think of anything that would fill this niche digitally: physical, collectible, displayable, requiring some human manipulation. And it should facilitate highly variable pricing (from $1 to $100). I think smartphone apps play this role to some extent, but I'm looking for something that you could actually put on shelf, an object d'arte. Apps simply aren't permanent.
Recently I met David and Jeevan over at Sifteo. Maybe those fun little Siftables would be perfect for the task? What do you think? What would make the perfect "digital snow globe?" Or is digital media just not up to the task?