#RaspberryJam Cambridge - the starting point of something quite special?

Today was a really great day at RaspberryJam; a well managed and timed series of short sharp presentations on what people thought of the Pi, had done with the Pi, had done *to* the Pi (addons etc), and would like to do to the Pi!

Sitting in the crowd the image I took below struck me as reminiscent of something

My friend, @JerryDHarper who was photographing the event for the organisers took this one [coming soon!], which much better illustrates my thinking.

The image that stuck in my mind?  This one

(image source: http://ed-thelen.org/FireInValley92.html)

The Home Brew Club Home Brew Club  in 1979.

With the hindsight of three decades, we can see that this club helped start many careers and business (see the Wikipedia link above for more details) - if you want to read more about that era and what came from it, I recommend reading Stephen Levy's book Hackers which I (quite oddly) found on sale in the second hand section of a hotel in Pico in the Azores some years ago.  You can currently buy it second hand from Amazon and Abebooks

More links here:
http://opencollector.org/history/homebrew/index.html
and
http://www.bambi.net/bob/homebrew.html

So, will we look back in 5 or 15 years (things move faster now!) and see an organisation and product that has become folklore in our industry and the source from which many good things sprang?

Comments invited!