Pi vs BeagleBone-Black

The knode thread at http://www.element14.com/community/thread/22258?tstart=0 is interesting in the way that the community pieced together snippets of pre-release information and accidental leaks into an early picture of what BeagleBone Black would be like, even before the name was known.  And Jason Kridner's informed remarks from the horse's mouth are always interesting to read, as is his strong interest in and clarity about BB[B] openess.

Perhaps the time has come at last for BeagleBone to get its own Element 14 group, to focus discussions about these two highly compatible boards better than occasional ad hoc knode threads can provide.  Sagar's thread would make a fine initial entry, given its historical perspective.

Once BBB is in the hands of 5-figure numbers of people, I suspect there is going to be quite a feeding frenzy around it, and large numbers of related discussion threads.  Indeed, this has already begun.  Price really is king.

Morgaine.

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

The knode thread at http://www.element14.com/community/thread/22258?tstart=0 is interesting in the way that the community pieced together snippets of pre-release information and accidental leaks into an early picture of what BeagleBone Black would be like, even before the name was known.  And Jason Kridner's informed remarks from the horse's mouth are always interesting to read, as is his strong interest in and clarity about BB[B] openess.

 

Perhaps the time has come at last for BeagleBone to get its own Element 14 group, to focus discussions about these two highly compatible boards better than occasional ad hoc knode threads can provide.  Sagar's thread would make a fine initial entry, given its historical perspective.

 

Once BBB is in the hands of 5-figure numbers of people, I suspect there is going to be quite a feeding frenzy around it, and large numbers of related discussion threads.  Indeed, this has already begun.  Price really is king.

 

Morgaine.

The discussion you reference is in the "BeagleBone Black" group at http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/element14_dev_kits/next-gen_beaglebone.  While it's buried too deep for the casual element14 user to find it, it seems at first glance to provide the same capabilities as the RasPi group.  Maybe it just needs a pointer or two so that people can find it.  There's quite a few useful and/or entertaining pages at element14 that are hiding in the file hierarchy.  If you know they exist you can find them by searching for the correct terms, otherwise it's like an Easter Egg hunt.  For example, there's a real photo of me somewhere at element14 but have fun finding it

John Beetem wrote:

 

The discussion you reference is in the "BeagleBone Black" group at http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/element14_dev_kits/next-gen_beaglebone.  While it's buried too deep for the casual element14 user to find it, it seems at first glance to provide the same capabilities as the RasPi group.  Maybe it just needs a pointer or two so that people can find it.  There's quite a few useful and/or entertaining pages at element14 that are hiding in the file hierarchy.  If you know they exist you can find them by searching for the correct terms, otherwise it's like an Easter Egg hunt.

That discussion is under  "the knode > Development Platforms and Kits > element14 Development Kits > BeagleBone Black", but I think it's probably not correct to call it an Element 14 group --- you can't become a member of it.

If you look at http://www.element14.com/community/groups/ and search for a BeagleBone group or anything with "Beagle" in it, you won't find anything.  The knode holds an ad hoc mixture of discussions about development kits, and the strong cohesion you find in Element 14 Groups like this Pi one doesn't seem to be a goal there.  It's fine for low-volume discussions, but I suspect that official Element 14 groups are better for centres of community interest like Pi, Arduino, and quite probably the BeagleBone family, soon.

Time will tell.

PS. There's also the added situation that the BeagleBone community doesn't have an effective forum of its own at the moment. (There's a Google Group, but it's pretty lacklustre like they all seem to be, and you can't use it without becoming a cog in Google's targeted advertising.)  An Element 14 group would provide a useful resource that is currently  lacking, as well as as a handy group blog for description of BeagleBone projects.

John Beetem wrote:

For example, there's a real photo of me somewhere at element14 but have fun finding it

 

Challenge accepted,  http://www.element14.com/community/community/members/blog/2013/04/25/having-a-blast-at-design-west

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

That discussion is under  "the knode > Development Platforms and Kits > element14 Development Kits > BeagleBone Black", but I think it's probably not correct to call it an Element 14 group --- you can't become a member of it.

There's probably all sorts of interesting stuff hidden in the bowels of "the knode", the problem being that you can't find it unless you know it's there and know exactly how to get to it i.e. you have the direct link. When I try to follow the path you list, starting at the homepage, I don't see any beaglebone stuff under "element14 Development kits".

Had the same problem with the Sabre-Lite area in the knode. If you try to follow the links you get re-directed to a document in a different area - with no clue there's a discussion area for it. There's been some activity - mostly me posting links to useful external info sources. but I suspect the few other posters have only found it due to something I've posted appearing near the top of the global discussions list at an opportune moment.

I've also stumbled across other interesting areas from time to time, totally by accident, but it's clear that a lot of information or groups have been lost in the mists of time when you see the only two or three posts for some group were from 3-4 years ago. Is the subject just un-interesting, or is it that it's too well hidden?

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

That discussion is under  "the knode > Development Platforms and Kits > element14 Development Kits > BeagleBone Black", but I think it's probably not correct to call it an Element 14 group --- you can't become a member of it.

There's probably all sorts of interesting stuff hidden in the bowels of "the knode", the problem being that you can't find it unless you know it's there and know exactly how to get to it i.e. you have the direct link. When I try to follow the path you list, starting at the homepage, I don't see any beaglebone stuff under "element14 Development kits".

Had the same problem with the Sabre-Lite area in the knode. If you try to follow the links you get re-directed to a document in a different area - with no clue there's a discussion area for it. There's been some activity - mostly me posting links to useful external info sources. but I suspect the few other posters have only found it due to something I've posted appearing near the top of the global discussions list at an opportune moment.

I've also stumbled across other interesting areas from time to time, totally by accident, but it's clear that a lot of information or groups have been lost in the mists of time when you see the only two or three posts for some group were from 3-4 years ago. Is the subject just un-interesting, or is it that it's too well hidden?

Hehe, yes, it is a bit ad hoc.  That's OK a lot of the time though, not every board creates a community as such.  I think it's mainly a matter of low cost and easy approachability.  Does BeagleBone Black have both?  I don't know, but the original BeagleBone may simply have been too expensive to sustain a really large and vibrant community.  BB-Black has a far greater chance, and I'm already sensing that something is stirring.

Maybe it's just dinner settling.