13 Nov 2012
OII Research and Policy Fellow Victoria Nash, talks to Pete Lomas, Founder and Trustee at innovative non-profit foundation Raspberry Pi, recipients of an Internet and Society Award in 2012 from the Oxford Internet Institute, in recognition of their exemplary efforts in using the Internet for the public good in Britain.
Raspberry Pi has developed an affordable, approachable pocket-sized computer that is already providing today’s children with unparalleled opportunities for learning to program. Digital computing and the Internet, with all the current emphasis on touch-screen visual cues and icons has for many become abstract and remote; with the advent of the Raspberry Pi we now have a credit-card sized computer we can hold in our hands and play with, reminding us of our capacity to tinker with technology, and the inherent mutability of the Internet itself.
The concept and prototypes behind the Raspberry Pi were developed between 2006 and 2008 by Eben Upton and colleagues at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, the project triggered by a perceived lack of computing skills amongst university applicants. The resulting device, which costs around £25, went into mass production in 2011 and hundreds of thousands have already been sold. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity.