RE: https://what3words.com/

Yes. Apologies for not listing this group itself. 

I don’t assume that W3W can’t live alongside existing systems. I think it can’t replace them. Reading W3W’s website you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s fixed a major problem that no one else has, so I feel there is at least oversell of its virtues. Perhaps that is what is required for any new idea. I feel the existing systems from Open Location Code and MapCode are presented more rationally and humbly by their owners.

Nor am I trying to discredit W3W. New ideas should be discussed and tested. This group is a good example of people doing that.

I do feel that any addressing system that is arbitrary, less systematic than current solutions, without context as you put it, should clarify that it’s a niche application.

Regards

Vijay

 

 

+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> http://www.caribbeangis.org/search/label/What3Words. 

 

Regards

 

Vijay

 

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From: Adrian Hope-Bailie [mailto: <mailto:adrian@hopebailie.com> adrian@hopebailie.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, 20 January, 2016 05:43
To:  <mailto:public-geolocation@w3.org> public-geolocation@w3.org
Subject:  <https://what3words.com/> 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