On 6 Oct 2009, at 12:08, Andrew Bailey wrote: > afaik, the postcode is a reference for a postman's delivery walk.
I was a postman for two years, and that's not strictly true. It's a reference for a set of houses. Generally, all properties sharing a postcode will be on the same walk. The postcode will stretch from one junction to the next on a street, and it'll only cover one side of the street, but that's only a rough guide. Some postcodes refer to a single property - usually a large business. A walk will cover a few dozen postcodes. > It's not yours. No, but it's public information. What's at issue here is the geolocation lookups on the database, not the postcodes themselves. > On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:39 +0100, "paul perrin" <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Just sent the following ot the post office. > > Hi I object to royal mail making a profit from my post code. So I > would like information on boycotting all royal mail services - > including letter/parcel delivery to a specific person at a > specific address. Also, how would I go about having my property > removed from the PAF. > > > So I'll shut up for now :-) > > > > Paul /)/+) > > 2009/10/6 paul perrin <[1][email protected]> > > Your view is utopian - if postcodes were to be freed then it > would almost certainly have happened by now... wishing it were > different doesn't cause change. > > > > If there were new codes and if royal mail decide not to recognise > them, then you could use an alternative delivery service that > does... > > > > Paul /)/+) > > > > 2009/10/6 Paul Waring <[2][email protected]> > > paul perrin wrote: > >> For some time I have thought that the public should boycott > post >> codes... develop an open source alternative and use that... > > > How can you boycott postcodes? If you don't put postcodes on your > mail > there's an increased chance that it will be delayed or lost in > the > sorting offices of the Royal Mail. >> Couldn't postcodes be extracted from a public source via an > freedom of >> information request? > How would that help? It's not a problem of getting at the data > (you > could just buy a copy of the PAF from the Royal Mail if you > really > wanted to), it's being able to use it. Just because you get some > information via FoI, it doesn't mean that you can use it however > you want. >> It can't be difficult - and if the switch over make is > difficult for the >> authorities, that is their look out... should have listened > earlier. > If the switch over is made difficult for the authorities then > they > simple won't bother doing it. As Royal Mail probably sorts and > delivers > the majority of your mail I think they have the upper hand in > enforcing > a system for identifying addresses. :) > Besides, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with postcodes as a > concept, the only issue is that the data (more specifically the > mapping > from a location to a postcode and back again) is not freely > available > for anyone to use. It would be much better to see the data made > available rather than invent an entirely new and unsupported > system to > do the same thing. > Paul > -- > Paul Waring > [3]http://www.pwaring.com > _______________________________________________ > > Mailing list [4][email protected] > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > [5]https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/deve > lopers-public > > References > > 1. mailto:[email protected] > 2. mailto:[email protected] > 3. http://www.pwaring.com/ > 4. mailto:[email protected] > 5. https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list [email protected] > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public -- Ian Eiloart _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
