What Three Words
- Thread starter Dutch01527
- Start date
Gary Fox
N/A
Without looking it up, I bet more than half the world don't use our alphabet.
Baggywrinkle
Well-known member
Have a friend who took a PADI diving course while on holiday. Part of the course was to follow a compass course under water. She rotated the dial to set the course as instructed, and then swam due north, following the compass needle.
Long ago I was manning the finish of the Stratford upon Avon marathon with a good friend. She was reading the numbers/times of the runners out as they crossed the line .... I was writing it all down. We decided to swap jobs and she found it impossible to write down the numbers at the rate needed so we had to swap back. Put people under pressure and their cognitive ability drops considerably, as well as people having different numerical abilities.
There are people on this planet who really, really can't navigate or who have a terrible ability with numbers - WTW provides an alternative, which works.
Use what works best for you, but don't knock what others use because you are not necessarily wired the same as them, and you don't have the same strengths and weaknesses.
If the emergency services can cope with both systems, then let it be IMO.
Long ago I was manning the finish of the Stratford upon Avon marathon with a good friend. She was reading the numbers/times of the runners out as they crossed the line .... I was writing it all down. We decided to swap jobs and she found it impossible to write down the numbers at the rate needed so we had to swap back. Put people under pressure and their cognitive ability drops considerably, as well as people having different numerical abilities.
There are people on this planet who really, really can't navigate or who have a terrible ability with numbers - WTW provides an alternative, which works.
Use what works best for you, but don't knock what others use because you are not necessarily wired the same as them, and you don't have the same strengths and weaknesses.
If the emergency services can cope with both systems, then let it be IMO.
Caraway
Well-known member
Like me, at home, you can write down your 3 words and various emergency services will be able to use them rather than the rather hit and miss postcode trackers. (Some of which seem very accurate, but usually comapnies that have already visited and refined their data.)
Dutch01527
Well-known member
How are you posting on this forum? Using a computer of some sort and thereby enriching the Silicon Valley fat cats. You are the only one who mentioned humanitarian.
This is a British commercial company who have invented something clever, potentially saved lives and created jobs.
Hermit
Well-known member
They say they don't. Of course, the business could be sold in the future but you seem to be fine using a forum - are you sure ybw.com don't sell your data?
This Policy contains much more detail, but we wanted to make you aware of the following key points:
Privacy Policy | what3words
- We receive data – that can constitute personal data under applicable laws – in order to provide our online services. We do not receive any data from usage of our product created for emergency services (what3words Lite).
- We cannot (and would not) track your movements – we only receive data on squares you open/click on or 3 word addresses that you search for when using our services (so we can give you the relevant 3 word address or location).
- We also use data to analyse our customer and visitor behaviour as a whole (and never on an individual level). Like most online service providers, we do this so that we can improve our users’ experience on our website and apps and improve our services.
- We do not share any data with third parties in order for them to advertise their products/services to you.
- We conduct digital advertising campaigns ourselves on Google and social media sites to increase awareness of what3words. Our “Cookies” section below has more information on how you can opt out of interest-based advertising on those sites if you wish.
- You can find all you need to know about how we use your data in one place: this privacy policy.
- We will only send our newsletter to you with your consent and you can opt out at any time.
Mark-1
Well-known member
Never thought about that before. Our house is hard to find. I bet all delivery drivers are familiar with W3W. I'm going to start putting that in the comments on orders. I'll never have a cold Chinese again.
flaming
Well-known member
One of their revenue models is to allow companies or individuals to pay to name a square. So for example a takeaway might want really.good.food or Liverpool FC might want never.walk.alone.
As it gets popular I can see that being quite lucrative.
As it gets popular I can see that being quite lucrative.
Hermit
Well-known member
By the way, I have no connection with W3W. I met Chris Sheldrik at a Royal Institue of Navigation event a couple of years ago and was impressed with the system he had created.
mjcoon
Well-known member
Thank you, I was rather proud of it for a spur-of-the-moment thought!
(Richard Dawkins would be proud of me but may have already said it himself.)
Baggywrinkle
Well-known member
PS: If you ever need to dispose of your ex. then W3W has the perfect location .....
forgotten.previous.husband
forgotten.previous.husband
Mark-1
Well-known member
That's what's changed my mind about the risks of unpleasent corporate behaviour. There are enough 'reasonable' ways to make money here without charging Hayling Island Rescue £50,000 for a licence.
Corribee Boy
Well-known member
Great, I thought - an answer to all those lost couriers who can't find us, in our out-of-the way phone dead spot, with our postcode covering about a mile of road.
The first location it gave me was halfway up out neighbour's field full of cows. When I corrected it it still seemed unable to to track me around the house and garden. (I do have location services on) but gives an offset of ten or twelve squares. Better than a postcode but not that impressive. I'm now two houses away in their lake!
The first location it gave me was halfway up out neighbour's field full of cows. When I corrected it it still seemed unable to to track me around the house and garden. (I do have location services on) but gives an offset of ten or twelve squares. Better than a postcode but not that impressive. I'm now two houses away in their lake!
HissyFit
Active member
Nobody is saying that the standard methods of position location would be abandoned, so what is unethical about it?
It reminds me of when a friend came off his mountain bike, it the dark on Cannock Chase, pre W3W. He wasn't able to give an accurate description of where he was, as he was on an off-road trail, amongst the trees. W3W would have been brilliant.
D
Deleted member 36384
Guest
Coribee Boy, the courier using the What Three Words that are unique to the square at the start of your drive or from door, will be able to drive right there using the App, or the companion App. Just ID the square 3 words.
Hermit
Well-known member
But you can just select the spot over your house (turn on satellite photos to be super accurate) and use those 3 words to give to people to allow them to navigate to you. You don't need to rely on the phone position if you know which square you are in.
Stemar
Well-known member
You guys! "We're all gonna die if we use it" Well, we're all gonna die anyway, but if it can help keep me form doing it today, I'm gonna use it. If the emergency services think it's worth using, I won't argue. I've had it on my phone for a while, another thing I keep just in case, while hoping and praying I never need it, just like the first aid kit in the car.
Of course it isn't perfect, but it's another tool in the box. It's a lot easier to give three words than a lat/long, especially as, if you stop a dozen people randomly on the street, I doubt more than three of them would be familiar enough with lat/long to find their position and give it in an emergency situation. Post code? Maybe OK in town where a code is a dozen houses, which house? Out on the moors, though, it's another matter.
At sea, plan A has to be the big red button on my VHF, but if things are really noisy, I'd rather give three words than a whole string of numbers
Of course it isn't perfect, but it's another tool in the box. It's a lot easier to give three words than a lat/long, especially as, if you stop a dozen people randomly on the street, I doubt more than three of them would be familiar enough with lat/long to find their position and give it in an emergency situation. Post code? Maybe OK in town where a code is a dozen houses, which house? Out on the moors, though, it's another matter.
At sea, plan A has to be the big red button on my VHF, but if things are really noisy, I'd rather give three words than a whole string of numbers
laika
Well-known member
"Each to their own" but the problem with "Each to their own" is that unless it's universal it's not much cop and I will echo a suspicion of anything regarded as a safety system which is someone's intellectual property.
I'm not about to download an app I don't need so telling me your location using some proprietary format won't convey much. If you're sinking, tell me you're 4 miles south of Selsey Bill and I'll come and help if I'm nearby. Tell me you're 50 degrees, something between 30' and 50'N, and half to 1 degree west and I'll recognize I'm in the vague area, plot it, see I'm nearby and come and help. Tell me you're okapi.dogger.bongo and...not so much.
My VHF displays my GPS position. it doesn't display some company's position words and I wouldn't fancy fumbling to switch on a phone in an emergency. The majority of the world's professional mariners should know digits spoken carefully in english. "W3W" words won't necessarily be memorable or even transcribable in another language so the sea, which should largely be the subject of our discussion, is frankly the least useful place for this.
On land? Well good luck with replacing postcodes. I once tried to report a moped submerged in a canal to the 101 non-emergency police number. They wouldn't accept the report without a post code (It was in the canal, I was on the tow path) even though I had the GPS position.
I'm not about to download an app I don't need so telling me your location using some proprietary format won't convey much. If you're sinking, tell me you're 4 miles south of Selsey Bill and I'll come and help if I'm nearby. Tell me you're 50 degrees, something between 30' and 50'N, and half to 1 degree west and I'll recognize I'm in the vague area, plot it, see I'm nearby and come and help. Tell me you're okapi.dogger.bongo and...not so much.
My VHF displays my GPS position. it doesn't display some company's position words and I wouldn't fancy fumbling to switch on a phone in an emergency. The majority of the world's professional mariners should know digits spoken carefully in english. "W3W" words won't necessarily be memorable or even transcribable in another language so the sea, which should largely be the subject of our discussion, is frankly the least useful place for this.
On land? Well good luck with replacing postcodes. I once tried to report a moped submerged in a canal to the 101 non-emergency police number. They wouldn't accept the report without a post code (It was in the canal, I was on the tow path) even though I had the GPS position.
Corribee Boy
Well-known member
Fine - that's what I did to correct it - but are the couriers going to experience the same issue and be able to find me if their phone puts them in the lake as well?