Raspberry Pi, the $25 computer

My girlfriend finishes her Master of Information degree this spring and has begun looking for work as a librarian. She was surprised to see how many employers were looking for applicants with programming skills as well as the master's degree. This seems to be becoming increasingly common in all fields as we advance further into the digital age.

Surprisingly, research has showed that students applying for computer science in the last decade have less programming skills than they did in the 90's. One possible reason is that in the late 80's and early 90's computers were relatively simpler, and with the internet only in its infancy, fear of operating systems becoming corrupted or compromised was much lower. This lead to parents being more likely to allow or even encourage their children to experiment with programming on a family computer. These days, home computers have become a vital part of most peoples lives, and the last thing most people want is their child experimenting with things they don't necessarily understand on them. So as a result the skills which are becoming more universally in demand are actually becoming more scarce.

In 2006, Eben Upton and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory began working on a potential solution to this problem. They have since then created a credit card sized computer, capable of running modern software (the basic software package was developed in Toronto at Seneca College), which is being sold for the amazingly low price of $25 US. Not only is the computer extremely affordable, but it was also designed to be extremely energy efficient.

The Raspberry Pi just went on-sale last Wednesday and immediately sold out, with the website being completely unable to handle the amount of traffic from interested parties. Part of the reason this product can be sold so cheaply is that it is not being sold for profit, but for the benefit of society in general.

Not only can the Raspberry Pi provide a truly personal computer which children can experiment with programming on, but it could provide many other solutions and possibilities as well. Their is already a strong interest from third-world or emerging countries where the average citizen can not afford a regular PC or the power demands of such devices. This also presents an incredible opportunity to schools, since they could supply each student with their own computer for less money than they would spend on most textbooks. The affordability and extremely low energy demands of this device will cause people to consider using computers to solve all kinds of problems where it simply was not practical for.

The information revolution has provided society with an incredible open and democratic platform. We as a society have a responsibility to ensure that people in lower income brackets aren't excluded from its benefits, and the Raspberry Pi may go a long way towards making sure that virtually anyone can afford their own computer.