On 2018-08-02 22:14, john whelan wrote:
Lat and long work quite well. If you have a smartphone with GPS it
understands lat long. It may not understand 8 letter addresses. Some
combination of letters may offend. How would you space them out?
It is What3words all over again, and some people don't seem to
understand why that won't work or is not a better solution than what's
already available.
What3words (or the like) only works if you have a computer (or
smartphone) to search for your address. But if you have one, then there
is also no need for a simple to understand location scheme (like
fish.market.smells) because you have a device to store more complex or
less easily rememberable addressing schemes like a lat-lon pair.
Granted, a lat-lon pair only works if you have GPS, but the same is true
for What3words, and you need that GPS anyway to get to your location.
The extra penalty for What3words is that you also need an active
internet connection (or a huge offline addressing database) to convert
the three words to a location. So it is never easier than a lat-lon
combination. If you don't have this internet connection (which is more
likely in remote areas where there is no proper addressing scheme) then
you're SOL or JWF.
What's more: with lat-lon you can judge the distance between locations
just by looking at it. With What3words this is absolutly impossible.
So Oleksiy, your comment about developers living in stable places
applies equally well to the notion that What3words or your scheme would
work. It does in a stable developed area, but does not in the outback.
Just to give an example: last week I was in a field where an animal was
in distress. I needed to call the police and alert them to the
situation. I needed to communicate the location. Is it easier and
quicker for me to first open some app to try and find my 8 letter
location or my 3 What3words, or is it easier and quicker to just read
out my gps location?
Regards,
Maarten
On 1 August 2018 at 03:37, oleksiy.muzal...@bluewin.ch
<oleksiy.muzal...@bluewin.ch> wrote:
Hi,
I read the whole article. I agree with the author's main idea, -
software development and implementation has got the invisible social
undercurrents, which are as important as the technical issues. By
the way, it is true for any human endeavor .
Speaking of database structure, - I am thinking about creating a
notion of an address. More than half of the planet population does
not have addresses because streets
do not have (and will never have) names, houses do not have numbers,
etc. Besides, in some areas addresses are unstable due to various
socioeconomic reasons.
At the same time it is possible to create 208 billion of 8-letter
unique quasi-words with 26 letters of English alphabet (26 in the
power of 8 = 208827064576). Even more if numbers are included. It's
enough for all dwellings on Earth. It is easy to transmit a 8 letter
word via telephone with ICAO Phonetic Alphabet [1].
Then when we call in browser something like:
osm.org/?address=hj3u878s [1] or type the unique quasi-word into a
search of of the OSM map: the distinctive geo-marker appears at the
respective location with the additional information, such as
entrance door code, apartment level, etc.
There are several commercial projects which attempt to do something
similar. And I realize that this approach may fail. However, the
path to success is paved with failures.
So at least it's worth giving it a try.
However, most developers live in stable places where street names
did not change from the 19th century. They may not realize that lack
of addresses leads to situations
where people cannot call police, firefighters, ambulance, etc. In
fact they can call but cannot explain where they live. What
consequently leads to the social issues such as appearance of
alternative criminal "authorities", sub-quality healers, etc.
[1]
http://aviationknowledge.wikidot.com/aviation:nato-phonetic-alphabet
[2]
Best regards,
Oleksiy
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[1] http://osm.org/?address=hj3u878s
[2]
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