What are the scenarios where you know the 3 words but not the lat-long?
Also you can send your location using popular messaging apps anyway right?
Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies
31–40 of 109 posts
Re: Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies
#32Google "Plus Codes" are being used in India - especially in underserved communities like slums. https://www.addressingtheunaddressed.org/ . If you want to use this tech + operations expertise in other geographies...just reach out to them. They intend to share their knowhow and expertise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd3gGspgVGs Also from what i understand, after the success in Kolkata, this was then used in Native…
> An Evaluation of Location Encoding Systems
https://github.com/google/open-location-code/wiki/Evaluation...
Re: Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies
#33Terrible: based on a single language, proprietary, IP owners being assholes, creates problems to the user case it was supposedly designed for, doesn't feature distance computing algorithms, takes even more space in a DB cell than latlong, I can go on for days.
Use numbers.
Re: Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies
#34The examples given here seem like the best case of it going wrong, they’re in a different country and UK rescuers know within seconds that they’re wrong.
I think this case further down is much more concerning:
> He found that the algorithm behind W3W often gave similar-sounding words and plural versions of words for locations in close proximity, which could cause confusion.
> So, for example, circle.goal.leader and circle.goal.leaders are less than 1.2 miles (2km) apart along the River Thames.
I wonder if the algorithm could somehow make it so similar sounding words like this aren’t anywhere near each other physically. It’s not as big a problem that leader and leaders sound the same, if you guarantee that only one of them is in the UK or at least within the same city/national park etc.
Re: Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies
#35Google "Plus Codes" are being used in India - especially in underserved communities like slums. https://www.addressingtheunaddressed.org/ . If you want to use this tech + operations expertise in other geographies...just reach out to them. They intend to share their knowhow and expertise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd3gGspgVGs Also from what i understand, after the success in Kolkata, this was then used in Native…
The fake image carousel which is actually a lightbox on https://www.addressingtheunaddressed.org/ is one of the more interesting things I've seen on a website
Re: Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the same token, further down the article says: > So, for example, circle.goal.leader and circle.goal.leaders are less than 1.2 miles (2km) apart along the River Thames. The second one is in South Dakota for me: https://what3words.com/circle.goal.leaders
It's circle.goals.leader, which really underlines the point.
Yes, this really demonstrates how this system doesn't live up to its promise. As someone previously involved in a SAR team I find the growing expectations on W3W very frustrating. It's like watching a slow train wreck. Ambulance and police services here are rolling it out in a kind of shadow-IT form way too rapidly. The largest problem I have with it by far though is pegging all these organisations to a reliance on a tech startup and a closed license.
Re: Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies
#37The examples given here seem like the best case of it going wrong, they’re in a different country and UK rescuers know within seconds that they’re wrong. I think this case further down is much more concerning: > He found that the algorithm behind W3W often gave similar-sounding words and plural versions of words for locations in close proximity, which could cause confusion. > So, for example, circle.goal.leader and c…
It's literally in the article:
"So, for example, circle.goal.leader and circle.goal.leaders are less than 1.2 miles (2km) apart along the River Thames."
That's potentially catastrophic, without an easy way to spot the mistake.
Re: Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies
#38The examples given here seem like the best case of it going wrong, they’re in a different country and UK rescuers know within seconds that they’re wrong. I think this case further down is much more concerning: > He found that the algorithm behind W3W often gave similar-sounding words and plural versions of words for locations in close proximity, which could cause confusion. > So, for example, circle.goal.leader and c…
Such an example is presented in the article.
Re: Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to wolframalpha (Log2(surface area of earth / 9m^2)) about 46 bits of information.
So basically using A-Z 0-9 you could have it geocoded using 3 x3 signs (for example 2J4.KI9.999)
One can be more cute and come up with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Location_Code
Re: Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies
#40Terrible: based on a single language, proprietary, IP owners being assholes, creates problems to the user case it was supposedly designed for, doesn't feature distance computing algorithms, takes even more space in a DB cell than latlong, I can go on for days. Use numbers.
There are really are issues with such a system and you listed some of them, but your recommendation makes me feel like you didn't read beyond the headline.
They need a way to transfer location data by the word of mouth, which is extremely difficult when you're using numbers. With longer numbers, such as a comparatively precise location, you have a high risk of errors on both ends, so searching for a solution makes absolute sense.
Nevertheless, based on the proprietary IP maybe the rescue services should consider building an own solution or evaluating open source alternatives if there are any