Open source activists interviewed about the BSA effort were largely supportive, though at least a few noted some initial concerns. Eric S. Raymond, president of the Open Source Initiative, said that as a former Boy Scout in the 1970s, he is "delighted to see this happening."
"The scout goals of education, community service and fostering individual self-reliance are perfectly in tune with open source community values," Raymond said. While he understands that the BSA has no plans for an open source merit badge, he said there are plenty of ways for the open source community to make itself available to interested young Scouts to learn about free software.
"The next logical step is for the troop leaders to get the kids involved in maintaining their data infrastructure" so they can learn about open source. "That's what scouts do. When you go to scout camp, you help maintain the place."
Bruce Perens, an open source leader and a founder of the Linux Standard Base, said in an e-mail reply that "there is a sort of back-to-the-future flavor about this, because it's looking back to the days when scouting was effective at encouraging young people to build a technical competence that they'd use throughout their lives."
"Consider the merit badges that scouts got in the 50s and 60s," he wrote. "These days you can't buy the kind of chemistry sets they used because so many chemicals are connected with explosives, drugs, or lawsuits. Model rocketry is becoming another casualty. A lot of things that scouts used to do to build character aren't open to them today. Our world is poorer for that. But open source software can provide those kids with the open vistas that a past generation had in other technologies."
On the other hand, Perens wrote, there are some risks, too. "Freedom has its enemies, and some of the projects mentioned on the scouting site are a thorn in Microsoft's side," he wrote. "Scouting is a very conservative organization, and what are their leaders going to do when Microsoft comes calling with money and influence? I think that what just happened with One Laptop Per Child is a lesson here. Microsoft didn't want all of those kids learning Linux, and Microsoft won. Are scouting's leaders going to be able to protect the independence of this project in the face of that sort of influence?"
Jon "maddog" Hall, the executive director of Linux International and a longtime open source activist, said that as a former Boy Scout, he learned many life skills that he still uses today. When he was 15, he used his scouting knowledge to literally save his mother's life by putting pressure on a wound when she cut a major vein in her arm on a large piece of glass, giving him enough time to get her to a doctor.
He does, however, have a few concerns about helping the scouts. The organization, he said, is a "paramilitary organization" that is closed to homosexual members and troop leaders, a stand which he finds personally offensive.
"On the other hand, I have to put all that aside" on behalf of the welfare of the children who gain so much through their involvements in scouting. "So whether or not the leadership of the Boy Scouts of America is homophobic or paramilitary should not be a reason for excluding an 11- to 18-year-old scout from participating in the development of free software," Hall said.
the chief architect of open source strategy at BMC Software, who is known as "whurley" in the open source community, called the Boy Scouts' open source initiative a great chance for the movement to educate mainstream technology users.
"If you say the Boy Scouts want to use open source to save the organization money, which is why a lot of people use open source, that's awesome," he said.
What would be great, he said, is if the BSA efforts can be expanded later to teach the Scouts about the open source development model, which is based on teamwork and community. "The Boy Scouts should say that open source is the perfect tool to teach Boy Scouts ... the value of collaboration."