[OSM-talk] What3words

[Colin Smale]

The issue is as you say not an intrinsic problem with lat/lon but in the
devices used to measure it. The 3x3m grid should however be sufficient
for the purposes for which it is intended. It is not a designed as a
competitor to lat/lon. 

In the hypothetical tribal village in Africa, all it needs is a single
visit from a surveyor with cm-grade GPS kit to tell everyone their
coordinates. That's one end of the problem; the other end is that the
users of these coordinates will also need accurate coordinates, but this
time in real time (assuming they are searching for the right house, to
deliver something for example). 

By the way, for all the detractors of such a system, check out what the
UAE introduced recently - a fairly affluent country with a poor
addressing system. The difference is they use 10 digits which are
algorithmically linked to grid coordinates, instead of three words. 

http://www.citymetric.com/horizons/buildings-dubai-and-abu-dhabi-didnt-have-official-addresses-thats-finally-changing-838


On 2015-11-30 14:41, steggink at steggink.org wrote: 

> Citeren Colin Smale <colin.smale at xs4all.nl>:
> 
>> Correct, but the accuracy issue is a weakness in lat/lon based
>> coordinates as well. If you use your consumer GPS or phone to find your
>> lat/lon, you might indeed be a long way adrift and you might get
>> different values on different occasions. Imagine that you were relying
>> on that to get your shopping delivered...
> 
> It isn't the same issue. There isn't a weakness in the lat/lon system  itself (unless you're not using enough digits), but the weakness is in  consumer GPS devices as you say. When using w3w in combination with  GPS, you have to convert it to lat/lon first, so you have to deal with  both the 3x3m inaccuracy AND the inaccuracy of consumer GPS devices.
> 
> Frank
> 
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