What3words

[philvantwo]

It's not cost me a penny, unlike these climate strikers who stop traffic and cause even more pollution. Held me up for 45 minutes today.
I was as wicked as a wasp when I got home.

[mjr]

It's not cost me a penny, unlike these climate strikers who stop traffic and cause even more pollution. Held me up for 45 minutes today.
I was as wicked as a wasp when I got home.

As mentioned earlier, it has cost you but you just can't identify where.

Surely if they stopped traffic, auto-stop kicks in and stops the engine so no pollution? Also stops it making tyre dust. I cycled and my wife bike+train+walked today. No delays...

[nez]

I'm imagining someone French trying to tell English emergency services that they're at jointure.cosmopolitisme.dévouant.

I think Audax67's post illustrates one of the advantages of What3Words rather that the cons. If someone French has difficulty expressing a 3 word combination, how much more so a lengthy gps numbered reference where a single number can throw the accuracy completely out. I believe this is why so many regional emergency services are recommending it, it is a lot simpler to find your position and relate three words to a phone operator in an emergency situation. Many people in that situation would probably not have a map with them or be able to locate their position with it. I have to say, it's another useful thing for cyclists to have it's free and easy to use so what's not to like?

I don't like that it's not free and how many Brits do you think could spell jointure.cosmopolitisme.dévouant if told it over the phone by a French-speaker? I think most would fail at the first syllable if not letter! More people would stand a chance with numbers even in French than a word like jointure or spelling jie oh' ee en teh oo air euh.

In other news, the next version of AAT will display plus codes if asked and be able to jump the map view to them. That's a free system. Any OSMand user want to ask for it there?

Numbers is no real improvement. French speakers give numbers in pairs ' trent-deux quarante-quatre, seize' etc. I can do it but I used to live there. When people first start doing it to you it's mind boggling

Anyway, why isn't it 'which3words'?

[Mick F]

That is a good question!

[philvantwo]

Saw these climate activists a few weeks back hitchhiking on the M54 slip road trying to get to a demonstration in Birmingham.
'What do we want?.........Climate change!.......When do we want it?.......After we've had a free lift to Birmingham!'
I papped my horn, drove past and gave them a one fingered gesture!

[rmurphy195]

Just tried what3words web site - maybe I'm a bit behind the times but I prefer a bit of logic in thigs. For instance, if I go south from a point on an OS map I expect half of the location to change, but not the other. Likewise using latituse and longitude - in both cases you can get a rough idea of a location by the values given

But I couldn't see the logic in "what3words - I put in my postode, and got a little square highlighted, with the legend "youth.slips.hulk", in the front garden of my neighbours house. So I moved the pointer about - and in adjacent sqaures got completley random names! For example, the square one down - or south - of "youth.slips.hulk" is "race.expand.rooms".

So being dim-witted that I am, not only can I not see the rationale for having a 3rd set of location co-ordinates (for this country at any rate), I can't see why it should be a random naming "convention" either, that doesn't allow you to look at the co-ordinate and work out roughly where it is. There must be an enormous table look-up somewhere that is usable only with a computer processor!

[Richard Fairhurst]

So being dim-witted that I am, not only can I not see the rationale for having a 3rd set of location co-ordinates (for this country at any rate), I can't see why it should be a random naming "convention" either, that doesn't allow you to look at the co-ordinate and work out roughly where it is. There must be an enormous table look-up somewhere that is usable only with a computer processor!

There's a single dictionary of the words it uses, and then an algorithm converts the lat/lon coordinates into words.

In the past few days someone has released an open-source clone of the W3W algorithm and code. W3W's response has been to get the lawyers in and force it to be taken down. If you're on Twitter then search for "whatfreewords" to see the drama!

[Mick F]

https://whatfreewords.org
Excellent!

[richardfm]

Just tried what3words web site - maybe I'm a bit behind the times but I prefer a bit of logic in thigs. For instance, if I go south from a point on an OS map I expect half of the location to change, but not the other. Likewise using latituse and longitude - in both cases you can get a rough idea of a location by the values given

But I couldn't see the logic in "what3words - I put in my postode, and got a little square highlighted, with the legend "youth.slips.hulk", in the front garden of my neighbours house. So I moved the pointer about - and in adjacent sqaures got completley random names! For example, the square one down - or south - of "youth.slips.hulk" is "race.expand.rooms".

So being dim-witted that I am, not only can I not see the rationale for having a 3rd set of location co-ordinates (for this country at any rate), I can't see why it should be a random naming "convention" either, that doesn't allow you to look at the co-ordinate and work out roughly where it is. There must be an enormous table look-up somewhere that is usable only with a computer processor!

The idea is that the three words that identify your location are easy to remember (compared to lat/lon or an OS grid ref) and can pinpoint your location much more accurately than a post code.

[mjr]

No, the idea is that people have to access the dictionary and W3W becomes the toll collector as they see fit. They can't do that if the dictionary is predictable or public.

[Mick F]

This sounds like a prediction of the future?
Not as it is at the moment.

At this present moment in time, the public can access the website and use the app as many times as they want totally free.

[Mick F]

Sheltering from the rain. If I'm wet on the outside I may as well be wet on the inside.

caring.onions.relax

[mjr]

This sounds like a prediction of the future?
Not as it is at the moment.

At this present moment in time, the public can access the website and use the app as many times as they want totally free.

Yes, it's at the moment. W3W is already collecting tolls from some users. You can use the app only in limited ways for limited time - read the terms of use.

[brooksby]

This sounds like a prediction of the future?
Not as it is at the moment.

At this present moment in time, the public can access the website and use the app as many times as they want totally free.

Yes, it's at the moment. W3W is already collecting tolls from some users. You can use the app only in limited ways for limited time - read the terms of use.

And, as referenced in the "whatfreewords" debacle, the W3W algorithm is purposely intended to be closed-source.

Let it be free to use now, but at some point the owners/developers can cash in to MS or Google or whomever, get very rich, and suddenly you'll find that it becomes expensive to look up your own physical location...

I'll get my tinfoil hat.

[nez]

If I say ‘what’s my gps position’ into the iPhone it brings up both a place name and a lat and long. It can’t make tea though.