Re: https://what3words.com/

+public-geolocation@w3.org (I think you dropped the group unintentionally)

Thanks for those resources. I wasn't aware of the other two projects.

On 20 January 2016 at 14:26, Vijay Datadin <vijay@redspider.biz> wrote:

> Hello Adrian, All,
>
>
>
> I know of it and think that it suffers from the fact that it is not
> systematic as an addressing scheme. You can’t tell that two locations are
> near to each other just by looking at their What3Words addresses, like you
> can judge with Latitude/ Longitude or Postcodes.
>

w3w is not intended to provide context it solves a specific problem:
Providing an easy to remember and express address.

If I am trying to tell my friend over the phone where I am in a large park
or give my location to emergency services over a radio w3w addresses win.


> It can only be used with an app and when your battery dies so does your
> ability to orient yourself.
>
>
>

You are correct but as far as I can tell the data and SDKs to integrate
this into apps or services is free and open.
I think it's a mistake to assume this system can't live alongside systems
like lat/long or other algorithmic systems like OLC.

There are use cases where expressing a location in a w3w form is approriate
and others where co-ordinates or other codes may be better.

This is a digital world so discrediting a system that only work digitally
seems unfair. Is there an easy way to calculate an Open Location Code on
paper?

One could make the same argument for digital/mobile payments. When your
phone dies you lose your ability to pay for things.
In that case it's time to get out your old plastic card/cash/compass and
map.

Open Location Code and MapCode present better solutions. Both are visibly
> systematic, and the former is an algorithm so I expect it uses even less
> storage than 10MB. More here if this interests you
> http://www.caribbeangis.org/search/label/What3Words.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
>
>
> Vijay
>
>
>
> ---
>
>
>
> *From:* Adrian Hope-Bailie [mailto:adrian@hopebailie.com]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 20 January, 2016 05:43
> *To:* public-geolocation@w3.org
> *Subject:* https://what3words.com/
>
>
>
> I came across this project today and wondered if the group is aware of it.
> I found no reference in the mailing list archives.
>
>
> It appears to be a very clever way of addressing any point (3m x 3m
> square) on earth using a combination of 3 words.
>
> For geo-location use cases where accessibility and the need for users to
> remember their location are important this seems like an interesting
> consideration.
>
> Example: A user that is using a screen-reader that is doing a location
> query is far more likely to want the what3words address read to them as the
> result of their query as opposed to the lat/long corordinates.
>
> The entire system can be embedded for offline use and is less than 10MB so
> could easily be integrated into user agents either as a fully embedded
> service or a proxy to the web service or a combination of the two.
>
>
>
> Adrian
>