RPi Philosophy

=Overview=

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity (Registration Number 1129409), based in Cambridge, which exists to promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing.

Raspberry PI is a charitable foundation with the aim of bringing real programming and related electronics experimentation back into the classroom.

Raspberry PI itself is a single board computer designed to bring the "Homebrew" back into electronics - getting away from the pre-packaged products, which lack the spirit of technical adventure.

Children are naturally curious - but prising the back of your XBox or IPad does not go down well! A Raspberry PI is cheap enough to break, and powerful enough (we hope) to catch their imagination.


 * Back story: 'About Us' page on raspberrypi.org
 * Contacting the Raspberry Pi Foundation

=Landmarks and minor drivers=


 * It should be possible to equip a class with Raspberry Pis for no more than the average annual spend on subject (say, chemistry) textbooks for an equivilent sized class [1]
 * Use of educational computers should not be fenced into 1 or 2 hours a week of 'formal curriculum time'
 * Devices (should) belong to the student, not the school
 * If it costs money, it doesn't get added to the hardware design
 * A thing that you can plug into things you already own; A peripheral for your TV
 * Follow the tail of the Moore's Law curve down (ie basic computing getting cheaper over time) rather than following the tip of the curve up (over time computers becoming more powerful, with more features, while maintaining their price point relative to inflation).

[1] Eben originally said that Raspberry Pi devices should cost no more than what he thought a school textbook costs. It turns out that it has been some time since Eben purchased a school textbook! A school textbook typically costs $75-125 and has an average lifespan of three to five years before needing to be replaced due to wear or curriculum changes, although some schools keep some course textbooks for much longer.

=Success= What does success look like?

Eben's personal view: Another 1000 Engineers a year entering the UK ICT Industry