My name is Evan Prodromou; I'm an Open Source software developer. I make an Open Source social network server called pump.io. It lets you set up a social site for friends, family and colleagues, and connect your site into a world-wide social network.
I want to make this easy for people by shipping them a working social appliance - a small server with pump.io pre-installed that you can plug in to the wall and your network and have it Just Work.
With the recent stories about Prism, I think this is a good project for a Kickstarter.
My rough idea for the appliance:
- Raspberry Pi (or similar device)
- Debian or Debian-like server OS
- pump.io
- Enough storage for photos, text, and social data
To make it appliance-simple, some custom features for this project would be:
- UPnP to grab port 80 or port 443
- Dyn-dns-style domains (yourname.pumper.co)
- Over-the-air upgrades via an APT repo
- Pre-installed SSL cert
Here are my questions:
- Is it possible to source Raspberry Pis in bulk? I'm going to set the limit on this project at 1000 devices, but I think it could go to much higher than that. Who can I talk to about fulfillment?
- Are there are any RazPi VARs that could take a disk image I provide and ship consumer-ready product for us? Like Pi + case + power supply + network cable?
I'm a real n00b when it comes to RazPi, so I could really use some guidance here.
