{"id":979,"date":"2008-06-03T12:57:56","date_gmt":"2008-06-03T17:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/2008\/06\/03\/all-about-opus\/"},"modified":"2008-06-03T12:58:21","modified_gmt":"2008-06-03T17:58:21","slug":"all-about-opus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/06\/03\/all-about-opus\/","title":{"rendered":"All about Opus"},"content":{"rendered":"

You read about my thoughts<\/a> on Montreal’s new smart card, Opus, when it was officially launched in April. Now you can read my article in the Gazette that adds a few quotes and some facts to my musings. I speak to an STM spokesperson about how Opus got its name and to a Boston journalist about how people there have taken to the CharlieCard<\/a>. Here’s an excerpt:<\/p>\n

When Montreal\u2019s new public transit smart card was officially launched in late April, most of its details had already been known for months. There was, however, one surprise: its name, Opus, which was chosen from more than 1,000 proposals and then kept secret for nearly four years.<\/p>\n

(…)<\/p>\n

For the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de transport de Montr\u00e9al, which led Montreal-area transit agencies in the creation of the new smart card, creating a memorable name was essential.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree hundred fifty thousand people buy a m\u00e9tro pass each month and they use it every day. With a smart card, they need to keep the card permanently, so we need to build a relationship between it and the consumer,\u201d STM spokesperson Odile Paradis said in a phone interview. \u201cThey need to keep it, take care of it, make it part of their lives. If it didn\u2019t have a name, it would just be an anonymous access card that nobody would care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opus is being phased in, starting with a small test group now, and expanding to students this summer and the general public in September. The old turnstiles are to be removed next June.<\/p>\n

In 2004, when the STM asked its employees what the new smart card should be called, it received 1,394 proposals. Eventually, it whittled that number down to just four: Transcit\u00e9, Transit, Sesame and Opus.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur criteria were that it was a simple word that was easy to remember, that it was as easy to say in English as it was in French, that it was marketable,\u201d Paradis said. \u201cIt was Opus that really passed the test. It\u2019s short, it has Latin roots and it is used in different languages. It also means a creative work and it refers to a numbered musical composition, which is appropriate because each card will have a number. \u2018Carte Opus\u2019 also rhymes with \u2018carte \u00e0 puce\u2019 \u201d (smart card).<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read on<\/a> to learn more about the history of branding smart cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You read about my thoughts on Montreal’s new smart card, Opus, when it was officially launched in April. Now you can read my article in the Gazette that adds a few quotes and some facts to my musings. I speak to an STM spokesperson about how Opus got its name and to a Boston journalistContinue reading “All about Opus”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2494,1066,2493,125,2148,805,1158,420,2492],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transit","tag-all-about","tag-boston","tag-boston-journalist","tag-montreal","tag-odile-paradis","tag-smart-card","tag-spokesperson","tag-stm","tag-stm-spokesperson"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAll about Opus - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/06\/03\/all-about-opus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"All about Opus - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You read about my thoughts on Montreal’s new smart card, Opus, when it was officially launched in April. 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