Jamboree on the Internet

Jamboree on the Internet
Scouts at their computers during Jamboree on the Internet
Genre	Scouting activity
Frequency	Annually
Inaugurated	1995
Founder	Queanbeyan Rovers
Area	International

Jamboree on the Internet, known by its acronym JOTI, is an international Scouting activity held annually. Participants, through the use of designated Chats from all over the world, can contact their fellow Scouts by means of the Internet. Common communication methods include ScoutLink (IRC), e-mail, and VOIP. This provides the Scouts with a means of learning about fellow Scouts from around the world. JOTI operates alongside Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) and is an official event of the World Organization of the Scout Movement.

JOTI was pioneered in 1995 by Queanbeyan Rovers when one Rover, Norvan Vogt was on a student exchange in the Netherlands, with the home crew in Australia coordinated by Brett Sheffield. They connected Putten, Netherlands and Queanbeyan, Australia with dedicated IRC servers. In November 1996 the World Scout Committee, noting that Scouting already had a considerable presence on the Internet, and that there was already an informal and rapidly growing Jamboree on the Internet, decided that JOTI should become an official international Scouting event, and that it should be held on the same weekend as the Jamboree on the Air (JOTA), the third full weekend of October each year, starting at 00:00 hours local time on Saturday and concluding 48 hours later at 24:00 hours local time on Sunday.

Special Internet Jamborees may also be organized in conjunction with local, national and international Scouting events which are held at other times of the year. Getting together does not always require a physical presence. In 1957, the concept of the World Scout Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) was launched, and it has been a popular event which today involves more than half-a-million Scouts and Girl Guides who communicate with each other on the third weekend of each October by amateur radio and related technology. In the mid 1990s the means for international electronic communication became available to virtually anyone with a computer. Scouts have been among the first to use every technological development to "get together" electronically. The spontaneous and overwhelming involvement of Scouts on the Internet is proof that it is a viable way of bringing Scouts together in ways that Baden-Powell probably would have wanted to use to the fullest.