“Open-source software helped London’s Oyster card system move
past a proprietary roadblock, an open-source conference in London
was told last week.“The Oyster contactless card system, which handles payments for
travel on London’s buses and Tube system, suffered from lock-in to
proprietary systems, which hindered developments to the online
payment systems, said Michael Robinson, a senior consultant with
Deloitte, at the Open Source Forum event in London. ‘The hosting
was on a proprietary system, centred on one application,” he said.
“It demanded certain hardware, and was locked into one design of
infrastructure…'”