What Three Words - Global Addressing System

[JeffWard]

I saw a tweet today about immigration offices in Thailand having three word addresses and was directed to this site - www.what3words.com.

I watched the video and checked out the map.  It is an intriguing system, I was wondering what you folks thought about it.

I assign addresses in my position as well as deal with addresses in error, or people that don't know their address (it happens more than you would think).  Remembering three words would be easier than a number a street a city a state/province and a postal code.

There's less to screw up, but my initial thoughts are spelling and transposition.  Also regardless of how much easier it is to remember three words you still need to get there using the transportation network.  Emergency personnel can use parts of a traditional address to know the general location of an incident whereas with three random (and they are random) words nobody is going to know where that is until they plug it into the web site.

What do you think about it?

[ChrisDonohue__GISP]

Well, the what three words result would be 3 meter accuracy.  Lat/Long may cause the responders to get a much more approximate location, further from where you are.  Just sayin'. 

Chris Donohue, GISP

PS - Joe, don't you already have all the First Responders on your speeddial already anyways? 

[DarrenWiens2]

3 word addresses are intentionally randomised and unrelated to the squares around them. To avoid confusion, similar sounding addresses are also placed as far from each other as possible. The app will account for spelling errors and other typing mistakes and make suggestions, based on 3 word addresses nearby.

[JoeBorgione]

Let me get this straight: I'm a Marine out in the back boonies of a base and one of my buddies gets hurt bad enough that I need 9-1-1 assistance:  The dispatcher tells me to download and install a native app so I can provide my location. All the while I'm applying direct pressure  to my buddy's brachial artery....

[BillFox]

That brings me back to Dr Mike from DuaneMarble's post above.

And Now a Word From Monty Python

Consider the fictional scenario presented below. I thought about scrapping the blog above and using this skit instead, but decided it might be better to discuss some of the issues with w3w in more depth. However, the scenario below is a pretty good summary.

It was a cold and dreary night. I had no idea where I was, so I called Rescue Services.
The operator asked, “What Three Words. Please?”

I replied, “I Am Lost.”

“No,” was the reply. “We couldn’t find any results for ‘I.AM.LOST’.”

I retorted, “But, I.AM.LOST.”

“No, sir. We require three words, not four words.”

I replied, “MY.CHOICES.ARE?”

“No, we did not get any result for those three words”

I responded, “HELP.ME.OUT?”

“Sir, you need to use a three word combination that contains three words from the forty-thousand or so recognized by what3words.”

“OK” I replied. “WHICH.THREE.WORDS?

“No,” was the response followed by, “And, that’s WHAT3WORDS. Although if you choose to use French or Portuguese the dictionary is only twenty-five thousand words because they do not cover the oceans and seas. Are you asea?”

“No, but how do I get the correct what three words that locate my position?”

“Use a What3Words App to identify your location on a map and it will return the three words defining that position.”

“But if I gave you my What3Words, what would you do with them?”

“Convert them to lat/lon and run a route to you.”

I was incredulous – “WHY.DO.THAT? You can read my lat/lon directly from the GPS chip in my phone and you can JUST.FIND.ME!”

[JoeBorgione]

Exactly!  LOL!

[ChrisDonohue__GISP]

So true. 

Chris Donohue, GISP

[BillFox]

Nice lead into Thirumurugan's question: "What do you think of this Plus Code as an alternate addressing system?"

Addressing - Plus Code or What3Words (W3W) 

Thirumurugan Ponnusamy‌ Addressing‌ 911 GIS‌ #Google_Plus_Code‌

-Bill

[MarkShymanski]

"This would give responders a 3 meter locational accuracy instead of the far less accurate fix from triangulating cell phone signals." 

I know I am a bit late to this discussion but this sentence leaped out at me...the GPS ability to accurately locate you is not increased by the use of the W3W app.  The average GPS unit will still have the limitations on horzontal accuracy, so it may pick one W3W identifier one time an even if standing on the same spot may select another W3W identifier the next time as the GPS precision wanders around.  So the W3W locator CANNOT give you a more precise location than what the GPS can provide, which I think is another flaw in this new method.

[DarrenWiens2]

I think the idea is that the responders could head toward a specific 3m x 3m square, rather than trying to infer the cellphone location from cell tower pings, but could be wrong.

[ChrisDonohue__GISP]

I probably should of worded that to be "approximately 3 meter accuracy" to be more precise, otherwise people may assume an absolute statement of accuracy was made.  So to clarify, the W3W system works on the basis of 3meter grid cells, but that does not mean it is exactly 3 meter accuracy.

Also, I hope people didn't assume that W3W system somehow makes GPS derived locations more accurate.  It doesn't.

The key point on the locational aspect is that W3W can often provide much better accuracy than the commonly-used alternative, which is Triangulation.  Note that Triangulation does not use GPS as part of its locating.  So the potential improvement offered by W3W comes down to the comparison of GPS on a cell phone (which yes is almost always not survey level)  VS.  Triangulated accuracy.  In that comparison, GPS usually wins (even with some level of inaccuracy).  For example, W3W may place you in the 3meter box adjacent to where you are really located, but that is often much closer to where you are than a Triangulated location would come up with.

So at least on the accuracy aspect, it has some benefits. 

By the way, I am not saying this is a perfect system and that everyone should run out there and buy it.  But as a person who does addressing, it is an interesting (and at times whimsical) alternative to traditional US addressing systems.

Chris Donohue, GISP