Almost every IT end user organisation in the world makes use of open source software somewhere within their company, but that doesn’t necessarily make them an open source advocate. UK telecommunications incumbent BT is apparently ready to make the leap from the former to the latter.

The company has announced its membership of the FOSSBazaar open source governance project, outlined its use of open source, and detailed its commitment to open source as a business enabler.

“BT is proud to use Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) throughout the entire organisation, and is actively engaged in numerous FOSS communities, projects, initiatives and events,” the company stated.

“More than this, though, BT believes that FOSS is crucial to our continuing development and growth as a software driven organisation. FOSS is helping us to improve the quality and interoperability of our products and services for the benefit of our customers.”

By engaging with FOSSBazaar the company is committing to dedicate free consultancy time and assistance to the forum, contribute to white papers, and also work on the development of open source governance tools. As the announcement states:

“BT has its own open source operations team (OSOT), which supports the effective adoption of open source software and principles in BT. Among its responsibilities, OSOT provides clear guidelines and support for making use of and contributing open source code on behalf of BT.”

Given the calls for more community involvement from end-user organisations it’s good to see a company like BT stepping up to the plate and being willing to share its experience.

More details on the open source software used within BT can be found here, while details of the company’s contributions are here. Also worth a look is Osmosoft, BT’s open source innovation arm.