Local scouts chat, share with others from around the globe

Saturday, October 20 was marked by the annual Boy Scouts “Jamboree on the Internet.” The Jamboree is an event in which Boy Scouts interact with peoples from foreign nations, the concept being that interaction with foreign nations opens the eyes of the scouts. The event was hosted by Rose-Hulman’s Computer Science and Software Engineering Department and featured local cub and boy scouts.

The scouts in attendance were more than thrilled by the concept of being able to associate with people from far away lands. These included places like Russia, Australia, and Norway. In the process of speaking with these individuals over the internet, Scouts were required to obtain three to four pieces of information about the person that they are speaking with. This is a requirement for one of the merit badges earned during the event. The other merit badge earned this day was for interaction with a foreign scout. This was made available by the presence of a foreign scout that worked with the scouts throughout the afternoon, providing a multitude of experiences for these children. Seth Boland, a scout from Troop 30, said “I really think it is neat to talk to people from all over the world,” while speaking with a fellow scout from Costa Rica.

Photo: Albert Mui Scouts James Walls (left) and Jesse Fox (right) chat with an international scout this past Saturday during the annual Boy Scout’s Jamboree on the Internet.”

The Scouts were able to communicate with these people upon their entrance into an international community on given IRC channels provided by the Boy Scouts of America’s website. The concept of the Internet has become vital for the scouts, as it makes it easier for a student to communicate and earn the respective merit badge for this event. Various forms of communication in the past included physical meetings and HAM radio. The scouts were supplied access to the internet on the Thin Clients offered to them by the CSSE department and assisted for any technical issues by Matt Boutell of the CSSE department.

This event occurred in coordination with an AΧΣ event targeted at Boy Scouts. The AΧΣ portion of the day was focused on the gain of the chemistry merit badge for the scouts. Scouts who began the day earning their chemistry merit badge were then brought to the CSSE department for the international activity patch.