Boy Scouts of America look to open-source community for help

Scouts honor, the 98-year-old Boy Scouts of America (BSA) organization is adopting open source software as a path to building better software that supports the almost 3 million scouts and 1.1 million adults who make up the group.

Faced with the need for a streamlined, organized way for its more than 121,000 local Scout troops to find and use software applications for fundraisers, event registration, facilities maintenance and more, the Irving, Texas-based BSA last month launched a Web site to begin its BSA Open Source Initiative.

So far, the group has done little to publicize the site, which has nary a post on it. But that could change as the BSA gets the word out and as the open source community finds out what is being done.

The site is envisioned as a place for scouting leaders to go when they need an application for their troop events or when they want to help other troops with their software projects, said Dan Nelson, director of application services for the BSA information systems division. The idea came up last year when BSA officials met with a group of corporate CIOs who suggested open source software as a valuable resource that could be used by the organization, he said. But until the BSA open source Web site was created, there was no way to organize such an effort. "We're in the perfect place to coordinate it" now, Nelson said.

By using a centralized Web site for its open source projects, Scouting leaders from around the nation can go there to find applications they need for their own projects, such as organizing a popcorn fundraising sale or a special event. By posting such custom applications on the site, and working together to modify, build and improve them, Scouting leaders won't have to start from scratch when they need an application for an event.

"I think there's a lot of potential to get some software into the hands of [Scouting] offices that don't have the resources available" to do these things on their own, Nelson said.

He acknowledged that little has been posted there since the site went live May 8 after six months of work, but he said the group plans to "seed it" with several open source projects that were done previously by others for Scouting activities.

And while there are no plans for anything like a Scout merit badge in open source -- although there has been a merit badge in computers since 1967 -- Nelson said it is possible that if the program is successful, it could evolve into use by IT-savvy scouts themselves.

Gregory Edwards, a Coppell, Texas-based independent software engineer and project manager who was brought in as a contractor to help create the Web site, said that once the site becomes known, the hope is that the large number of technology-oriented adult volunteers with the scouts will make it a creative, active destination for open source development.

"It's a true golden opportunity for the open source community, too," by connecting it with a large group of interested adults and tech-hungry children who can be inspired to use and learn about open source, Edwards said. "The open source community and the Boy Scouts can spread the word on it."

For the open source community, that can be a big win, he said. "Once you get the snowball rolling down the hill, if you get it rolling right, it does grow," Edwards said. "You nurture it. You get the exposure. You get people involved."

Though the project is aimed at Scouting leaders initially, there is nothing that precludes young scouts from volunteering on the site to help write, discuss, test and develop code, he said.

Other nonprofit agencies, from athletic associations to community groups could also gain from the BSA open source effort, because they could use these kinds of applications, too, Edwards said.

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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."