Making parallel computing easy to use has been described as a problem as hard as any that computer science has faced. With such a big challenge ahead, we need to make sure as many people as possible have access to cheap and open parallel hardware and development tools! Inspired by great hardware communities like Raspberry Pi and Arduino, we see a critical need for an truly open, high-performance computing platform that will close the knowledge gap in parallel programing. The goal of the Parallella project is to democratize access to parallel computing. If we can pull this off, who knows what kind of breakthrough applications could arise. Maybe some of them will even change the world in some small but positive way.