Rob Bishop of the Raspberry Pi Foundation

Tonight I had the pleasure of meeting Rob Bishop of the Raspberry Pi foundation.  Rob was the first official employee of the foundation, and he has been instrument in many things Raspberry Pi.  His official title is "Developer Evangelist", but I would consider him a "Senior Jack of All Trades".  He's done a lot for the foundation, including setting up the super slick  NOOBS OS install system.  Rob is based in the UK, and Chicago was his  first stop as part of an epic tour of the US.  Check out this Google Plus page to see if he's coming to your neck of the woods!

Rob and I had some burgers at Kuma's Corner, which is a Chicago institution of its own right.  I was worried that the heavy metal music might be an issue, but fortunately Rob has eclectic taste as well!  We talked about our visions for the Pi and how the foundation works.  Here are some of the things I can share from our discussion:

• The foundation only has 7 employees, and founder Eben Upton still works at his day job at Broadcom!
• They have sold 1,500,000 Raspberry Pi's since launch 18 months ago.  When they initially launched, they were hoping for 10,000 units in the first year.
• RaspberryPi.org gets 100,000 hits per day!
• They expect to keep the Raspberry Pi in its current form for quite some time, but look for some new addons in the future
• The foundation is hoping to get the Raspberry Pi into more educational settings in the US.  We at Chicago Electronic Distributors sure hope that we can help with this!

After dinner we went over to Pumping Station One where there was a crowded room waiting to hear Rob speak and do some Q & A on the Pi.  It was a great discussion and we all learned a lot about the foundation and its goals.  All in all a great night!