This post coming to you live from the Raspberry Pi Jamboree in Manchester, England which is being held as part of the Education Innovation Conference & Exhibition at the Manchester Central Conference Centre this week.
Today kicks off two days in Manchester celebrating the Raspberry Pi, and we talked to Alan O’Donohoe—the person who kicked off the whole Raspberry Jam movement—about the Pi and Jamboree. While the Raspberry Pi has found a place in the maker community, the original idea behind the Pi was to build a tiny and cheap computer for kids, and to reinvent computing education in schools, and the Jamboree is all about education.
Alan talks about the Pi as being the stone used in making stone soup,
Some travelers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry travelers. Then the travelers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travelers answer that they are making “stone soup”, which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavor, which they are missing. The villager does not mind parting with a few carrots to help them out, so that gets added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travelers again mention their stone soup which has not reached its full potential yet. The villager hands them a little bit of seasoning to help them out. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all.
This is actually one of the better explanations I’ve come across of the Pi’s run-away success.
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