Ben’s Raspberry Pi US Tour – August 2014
Ben here: I’m on the education team at the Raspberry Pi Foundation in Cambridge, UK. As part of our outreach work I’m visiting the USA next month, where I could be visiting your school or hackspace.
Standing in front of people talking about Raspberry Pi. I’ve been known to do it.
Calling all Pi-thusiasts! I’m visiting in August and if you’d like me to visit your hackspace, speak at your school or check out your community learning space, let me know and I’ll try to fit as many visits in to my trip as possible! Whether your group wants to find out how to get started with Raspberry Pi; or whether you’re seasoned Pi hackers, I’m looking forward to meeting you.
Once I gave a talk about Raspberry Pi community in a furniture showroom while on holiday in Berlin. True story.
I’ll be arriving in New York City on 4th August and travelling from there to Salt Lake City, visiting as many places as possible on the way in under three weeks. I depart on 21st August.
I’ve set up a form where you can submit your request for a visit. Many US teachers have been asking us for a taste of the sort of things we do at Picademy, for example: now’s your chance. If you’re close to the blue line in the map above, submit the location of your suggested stop and I’ll get in touch if I can fit you into my trip. (If you’re not close to the blue line, get in touch anyway, and I’ll see what I can do.)
The Greater Manchester STEM Raspberry Jam team
I’m very conscious that I might have used words in this post or elsewhere which I know to be spelled incorrectly differently in U.S. English. I apologise.
63 comments
Charlotte
No, incorrectly is the correct description :P
Martin
There’s a reason that it’s still called “English”. You want to define how it’s spelt? Get your own language. :-p
ukscone
bit of a lame route :) just an almost straight line. no fancy caffeine molecule route attempt or even a pretty zigzag or circle.
Ben Nuttall — post author
Early days yet. I’d at least like to start with some sort of sensible plan.
ukscone
the most sensible plan would be to go to Australia :)
Andrew/
Or Canada, how about Canada?
Dan
A pretty blatant jog to the North to keep him out of Colorado.
Gerald Hasty
The jog thru Nebraska is the path of I-80, a major Interstate route across the mid-west.
Stewart Watkiss
It was either work out some complex travelling salesman algorithm, or draw a straight line. Looks like the pen and paper won ;-)
Douglas6
As you analyze and organize routing your trip thru the center of the US, as a traveler, you can avoid giving offense if you practice your dialog, centering on fulfilling a likable demeanor for your new neighbors.
Jerry Wasinger
I’d like it if you dipped down to Georgia so you could see what I’m developing.
Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton
Add a note to the form that’s linked in the article – Ben’s being quite fluid about what he considers his route at this stage!
Jonathan Morris
I would but I don’t have a place for Ben to come to. (At least I don’t know if I could arrange a place as I’m only 11.)
Jon Colt
Jonathan–
Atlanta has one of the top engineering schools in the world: The Georgia Institute of Technology (Ga. Tech). Why don’t you try enlisting the aid of your school’s resources to see if you can get an “in” with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. A very renowned professor there wrote many fine practical books on the MicroChip Processor seies.
The School of ECE is very open to the very latest in technology and teaching.
[Note to Ben: so as not to be accused of jingoism (I got my degrees from Ga. Tech), why have you not included the Boston area, with MIT, on your schedule. MIT is a great school, and the Boston area is a massive technology incubator.
With ALL due respect–and I sincerely mean this as an ex-high-tech Area Sales Manager and Area Tech Manager–I had responsibility for doing what you’re trying to do.
Here’s where the “due respect” part comes in:
I think you’re trying to do too much in too many places which will yield too little return on investment, and all in too little time.
You need to take a step back and cancel your plans until you’ve got a workable, PROFITABLE plan which will yield the most Pi exposure to the most amount of people.
If I had presented–as my plans–your map to the management of my company when introducing a new beyond-the-state-of-the-art digital signal processor, it wouldn’t have happened.
You, and your management need to spend some time researching the best opportunities in the U.S., and then planning the trip around THOSE BEST OPPORTUNITIES.
I’ve been there; done that.]
Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton
Eben and I did a visit to MIT last year; Ben’s trying to get to some places the Foundation hasn’t visited before. I *love* Boston; I hope we can return some time soon.
We are as interested in talking to small groups and making individual kids enthusiastic about learning computing as we are about…maximising investment. It’s just the way we work; we’ve been very successful taking this approach before. (Three million of you can’t be wrong.) This is not about making as much money as we can. In fact, it’s not about making money at all. It’s about bringing the outreach we do to places we’ve not visited before, and is as much about making an impact on individuals as it is on groups. We take a fractal approach. And I hate to tell you – if you’re trying to build grassroots support or make people join a community, it’s absolutely the best way to do things.
Ben Nuttall — post author
I’ve had an email listing a bunch of options for things I could do in Boston, all of which I’d love the chance to do, but fitting it in would be tricky. I need to be making progress Westwards if I have any chance of reaching Salt Lake City.
I totally should have done this on Kickstarter. You book me in through pledges. I’ll be more interesting for more money.
Steven D. Brewer
You should fly into Boston and visit UMass Amherst and Makers at Amherst Media. Oh, and there’s some stuff in Boston you might want to see too.
RobV
you apologise? , , or apologize?
Long Zheng
What will you do if the Americans refuse you entry to the country? :P
Jon Colt
You have GOT to be kidding!
You need to be seriously disabused of the notion that ANYONE, FOR ANY REASON will be denied entry to the United States of America. POTUS needs all the votes he can get, however he can get them.
I would apologiZe for going off-topic, but remember: you brought the subject up.
Jon Colt
“…I’m very conscious that I might have used words in this post or elsewhere which I know to be spelled
incorrectlydifferently in U.S. English. I apologise.If you British hadn’t lost The Big One back in the 1770’s, we’d all be speaking, spelling, and writing English today.
And furthermore, to paraphrase one of our questionably illustrious presidents:
“It’s a poor mind as can’t think of at least two or three different ways to spell a word.”–Andrew Jackson
As we say in my part of the world, you and the entire Ï€Team are “…doin’ reel good at speakin’ reel english.”
MAJ
It’s English Jon, but not as we know it.
Lance Howarth
Of course the inherent irony in holding aloft a beacon for the Queen’s English is that our illustrious Queen of is of German descent and many of the differences between the Queen’s English and that of our American cousins are of Anglo Norman origin, so French, i.e. “-our” (favour, flavour, colour, savour) versus “-or” (favor, flavor, color, savor). But hey, we’ll gloss our that and cling to the notional that our language reflects our glorious cultural heritage. It’s just a shame we run out of characters in twitter when ending a message with a word like savou
Pygar
I passed your link to my local library, which does this sort of thing. Hope they take you up on it. I’m in central Kentucky, not too far from your route, at least as best as I can see the tiny map…
Jim Manley
If you click (or tap for smartphone/tablet users :) on the tiny map, it is displayed on its own page and you can then zoom in on it to see details such as the trip of thousands of miles will only last 39 hours, so that doesn’t leave much time for casual catting at the venues. There are also numerous yellow triangular signs shown along the route with a cartoon character shown digging, so either Ben plans to do a lot of BitCoin mining or the ubiquitous construction activity will be continuing on our rapidly-deteriorating 1950s – 1970s era superslab infrastructure. In either case, expect significant delays and do not attempt to make up for lost time by speeding across the more rural seemingly-endless stretches of asphalt and concrete – that’s where the local and state law enforcement folks get the big bucks needed to buy all manner of nice, shiny, new patrol cruisers, airplanes, helicopters, and radar/lidar speed-ascertaining devices ):
As the desk sergeant used to say at the beginning of each episode of “Hill Street Blues”, ” … and let’s be careful out there … ”
;)
Ben Nuttall — post author
I hear there’s a gold rush
Malakai
Finally Salt Lake can’t wait for it. Bring Carrie Philbin and Rachel Rayns :)
Ben Nuttall — post author
I’ll see if they fit in my suitcase. I’ll be taking B+ Pis which take up slightly less space so maybe :)
Rachel Rayns
I wish :(
Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton
I am shocked and appalled that nobody wants me in a suitcase.
Jon Colt
Quite to the contrary, you should be honored that people prefer you outside–rather than inside–a suitcase. I haven’t, to my knowledge, seen an example of the quality of your work from inside a suitcase; I’m simply assuming what sterling work I’ve seen has been performed outside of one.
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”–Groucho Marx.
Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton
And to think I vetoed the addition of a +1 button on blog comments here. :)
Rachel Rayns
Does Emma have a form for a formal request?
Malakai
I would love a visit from Liz but after meeting royalty.
I’m not worthy.
And Yes EMMA wants to meet her hero’s the Women at the Towers are her greatest inspiration. My hats off to all of you. :)
But where is Ben going in Salt Lake?
Hayden James
This is great! There are so many downsides to being a kid these days, but Technology and the RPi isn’t one of them. How I wish I had opportunities even 1% close to this as a kid in school. Kudos!
joe
I’m guessing a stop in Northern California will be added later? Seems almost impossible not to hit SF or Silicon Valley.
Autonomous
Why end the tour in Utah? Why not make it a “coast-to-coast” tour of the US?
MAJ
Personally, I would have spelt spelled spelt!
Jon Colt
If one can use “spelt” in place of “spelled”, is it acceptable to use “smelt” rather than “”smelled”?
I like the economy and touch of class which British-English provides: “skip” for “dumpster”, or “demolition-container roll-off”; “loo” for “toilet”, or “bathroom”…
Back to the topic: if that is acceptable, I suppose that one could state that smelt deprived of the proper processing and storage…smelt.
MAJ
Hi Jon, Yes smelt is perfectly acceptable too, as is earnt rather than earned. Verbs tend to get more regular the further south you go in Britain. (Believe me, you don’t have to go far for accents to change.) A quick check with my posh, more southern, girlfriend has just confirmed this as she says she always says “smelled” not “smelt”.
Abel
Hope you guys can take a detour down to Texas, I bet the Perot Museum of nature and science would be a great host.
Malakai
Ben, I can bring Rapiro, Cupcade, ISS Above with Pi-Lite, Porta Pi Arcade, tons of add-on boards. It could save you a lot of time setting up and you won’t have to take it all back to the hotel. hint hint.
Jerry Wasinger
If Atlanta is added, I can provide lodging, beer, and bourbon.
Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton
He won’t add it if nobody from Atlanta fills out the form – so get to it!
Jerry Wasinger
You’re killing me, with your demands, Liz.
Loral
Are you going to post your itinerary with dates and times when you get things finalized so if you stop somewhere near me I can come?
Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton
He will be doing, yes.
Loral
Awesome, thanks!
Bill Weinel
Hi Ben and all at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Looks like you’re planning to take a swing by Raleigh NC (…the home of RedHat software.) Please keep all of us Raleigh PI fans posted so we can welcome you to the capitol city. Cheers!
Leigh H
Bill, you asked the question I was going to post. Looking forward to Ben making a Raleigh visit (hopefully). Have wanted to get involved with Raspberry Pi and can’t think of a better way to start. Will check back for a posted itinerary. PS – I have beer…
Bill Weinel
WooHoo! Beer with PI is always good… :) Cheers!
Paul
Where do you plan to stop in North Carolina? How could I coordinate visiting at these events?
Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton
Ben will be posting his finalised route some time soon – although not before next week, because he’s busy at PyCon at the minute!
Jon Colt
It seems as though you’re getting a lot of requests here (I’ve no idea what the over-all results from the ‘official request form’ are, of course) from people nowhere near the “official blue line”. Assuming that the responses–comments–to this blog somewhat reflect the contents of the ‘official request form’ (statistics does tend to work that way), my question is:
have you considered lengthening the tour? Or is that absolutely not an option?
Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton
Not an option – we need him back at Pi Towers!
Cameron
Just found out about this! Hope you can make it to our Raspberry Pi class in Manhattan! We wrap up August 8th. I think our students would really appreciate the visit!
Leigh H
Ben’s trip is just days away. Is there an itinerary for the first few days/trip yet? I’m sure we all want to find the time to attend an event. Thanks.
shaheera
Come to Africaaaa!
I’m positive that the American University of Nigeria would love to have some Pi awareness! In fact I’ve decided to do my SDP on the Raspberry Pi :)
Dawn T.
Do you have a schedule for the tour, yet? We’d love to be a stop in mid-Missouri if you still have an opening.
thurnaud (at) more (dot) net
Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton
http://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/#bens-usa-tour-dates
Jon Colt
I’d like to attend one of the presentations. Will you have RPi s (and NOOBs, e.g.) for sale at these get-togethers?
Terri Reeves
I have been trying to contact Ben but have not heard back from him yet. My principal is asking what time I should be expecting him to speak to students at my school on Wednesday, August 13th.
Terri Reeves
Ben spoke to my classes on August 13th. The students enjoyed having Ben share the Raspberry Pi possibilities and were truly inspired. Many of my students told me that they were purchasing a Raspberry Pi to begin programming. Thank you, Ben, for inspiring my students to join in on this Raspberry Pi Revolution!! You were wonderful and we enjoyed having you visit us at Fayette Academy in Somerville, TN.