ects 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, 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, which gave 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 that 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.

William Hurley, chief architect of open-source strategy at BMC Software Inc. 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 could 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."

Read more about software in Computerworld's Software Knowledge Center.

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