This article was written by Simon Chester and originally appeared in Position magazine. It can be read in full in the April/May digital edition.
While most Australians take addressing — that is, the ability to systematically locate a building or other landmark — for granted, the need for an agreed-upon, unique, and memorable address for any given location remains a fantasy for most of the world.
“Around 75% of the world — over 135 countries— suffer from inconsistent, complicated or inadequate addressing systems,” said Chris Sheldrick, CEO and co-founder of UK tech start-up what3words. “This means that around four billion people are invisible: unable to report crime unable to get deliveries or receive aid, and unable to exercise many of their rights as citizens, because they simply have no way to communicate where they live.”
The problem grows even worse when you travel outside of urban and rural areas— where at least named streets are more likely to exist — and into remote areas or settlements, as there is a wealth of really important remote locations that need to be communicated to people not necessarily familiar with the area.
“Poor addressing might seem no more than annoying in some countries, but around the world it hampers the growth and development of nations, ultimately costing lives,” said Chris. “It means that, in remote locations, water facilities can’t be found, monitored, or fixed; and schools, refugee camps, and informal settlements remain unaddressed.”
To help fill this deficit, what3words has created a memorable, algorithmic method to create addresses for any conceivable point on Earth.
“what3words is a universal addressing system based on a 3×3 metre global grid,” said Chris. “Each of the 57 trillion 3x3m squares in the world has been pre-allocated with a fixed, unique three-word address.”
That means that, no matter where you travel on Earth —from the busy streets of New York City, to the furthest Pacific archipelago, and every point of land or ocean in-between — there is now a memorable address consisting of just three words to describe where you may be standing. For instance, the front door of my office can be referred to as `future.zoom.drive,’ or viewed on a map — and even navigated to — by visiting http://w3w.co/future.zoom.drive.
“We have developed a global addressing platform — a simple way for everyone to easily talk about the precise location of every part of the planet,” said Chris.
The idea is that a 3x3m square is large enough to reduce the number of addresses, but small enough to be of practical use—for the majority of situations, what you’re looking for will easily be found within that 3x3m area.
The initial idea for creating this global addressing system came from Chris’ previous job as an event organiser. “My job used to be organising big events, all around the world, in amazing but generally hard-to-find locations. For ten years, as much as I tried to give the best address details I could, I still had suppliers, bands, and guests calling up saying, ‘I think I’m nearby, but I don’t know where it is.’
“Seeking a solution, I talked to a math academic friend of mine about a more usable and less error-prone version of the lat, long coordinates I resorted to using. He immediately said we could solve the problem with words, and wrote an early version of the algorithm on the back on an envelope.”
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Continue reading in the digital edition.
A keynote speech about what3words will be given by Steven Ramage at GeoNext 2015, 19 August at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Ramage is a board director of what3words, geospatial consultant at the World Bank and visiting professor at the Institute for Future Cities, in Scotland.
