Raspberry Pi & DIY IoT

"Cloud Computing, Big Data & IoT connects one another in a natural way and they have the ability to stand alone."

What is IoT?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a scenario in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.

What are the Minimal requirement to form an IoT?
If we consider the objects, animals or people to be "Things" in order to get into IoT Scenario,
1. Connection to Internet - Some way to connect to internet automatically to receive and send data about "the thing".
2. Minimal Processing & Storing capacity to collect & process data about "the thing" and store simple logical programs for processing data.
3. Natural Sensors or Built Sensors to sense the data.

What is Raspberry Pi?
A small Computer when compared to PC or Laptop.
A small Operating System can be installed, so we don't struggle with low level language or electronic circuit logic.
It is a Electronic Development Kit and it is a computer unto itself.
It does not have a Monitor, Keyboard but have USB ports to connect them.
It does not have a Wifi inbuilt, but external Wifi device can be connected via USB port. It also has a ethernet connector to wired Internet connection.
It does not have inbuilt sensors but has General Purpose Pins to connect sensors & electronic circuits

Why Raspberry Pi & DIY IoT?
Raspberry Pi can become a part of "the thing" and can realize IoT Scenario. It satisfies all the requirements to form a IoT. When considered for "Do it Yourself" IoT, it is easy if one has a device like Rasperberry Pi. Any Software Programmer with little knowledge on electronics could create an IoT with Raspberry Pi.

If you are from electronics background, you may find that the computing & storage capacity of raspberry pi is too much to achieve IoT. Here, We are not interested in electronics circuit & resource optimization but we are interested in making IoT of different "things" for different purposes & use cases. If the solution which we draw for IoT requires to be mass produced then you can always look for circuit optimization for the Thing. This makes Raspberry Pi preferable device even for people with electronic background.

If you are a professional is electronics, you may also feel comforatable to work with some general purpose boards from "arduino" for IoT.

Since the centre of attraction is IoT not electronic circuits & boards, the recommendation will be to go for comfortable general purpose devices & boards which has ready made solutions to meet the basic minimal needs of IoT and allows us to creates IoT solutions. Raspberry Pi suits for most of the software programmers, Electronic engineers and for people with background in softwares & electronics to create new IoT.

What is already a Thing but cannot be used for DIY IoT in many cases?
Smart phones with Wifi, bluetooth and sensors like accelerometer, gyrometer, GPS are already in IoT scenario. We can also write some programs to get the position of the person holding a smart phone or to get data like how fast a person is moving with the smart phone in hand without human-human or human-computer interaction.

In case, one requires to put a "light" or "fan" in IoT, smart phone is not sufficient, hence cannot be used for DIY IoT in a general way.