What 3 Words (W3W) is a UK based company that offers a geocode system that divides the world into 3m squares and allocated each square a unique three word identifier - for example, the top of Mam Tor hill in Derbyshire is identified as "crackling.exacts.mirror.
The system has attracted criticism for the fact that the algorithm that allocates the addresses is proprietary and that there are many ways, especially when conveying the addresses non electroncially, that miscommunication can occur.
A research paper notes the many ways addresses can be miscommunicated :
and comments :
"I would caution against the widespread adoption of W3W, especially in applications with a noisy communication channel between sender and receiver. This work has tested some of the claims that W3W makes about their algorithm. These claims are not borne out under scrutiny which suggests that W3W should not be adopted as critical infrastructure without a thorough evaluation against a number of competing alternatives."
Meanwhile,an BBC article where Mark Lewis, from Mountain Rescue England and Wales (MREW), gave 45 examples from the previous 12 months where locations given for lost or injured walkers turned out to be incorrect, including: a database from the last 12 months which listed 45 locations across England and Wales that rescuers received from lost or injured walkers and climbers, which turned out to be incorrect.
jump.legend.warblers which was in Vietnam
Examples included: jump.legend.warblers which was in Vietnam
duties.factory.person was located in China
refuse.housework.housebound was in Australia
flesh.unzip.whirlwind was in Russia
adding that "We are finding there are a lot of spelling issues, which might be from when locations are given to the emergency services. Local accents have also been a problem."
A compilation of stories gives more examples of chaos caused by the use of W3W.
Perhaps more importantly than the technical concerns is the fact that the algorithm is proprietary. In contrast to many open source alternatives, if W3W goes bust, any W3W links on the internet (outdoor locations perhaps, or maybe orienteering route markers, or road traffic accident locations) immediately become useless.
And that is to leave aside the concern that the, very litigious, W3W company follows many other online companies in taking the path of enshittification in order to drive revenue at the expence of user experience.
Other, open source alternatives exist:
Advanced Mobile Location (AML) is an automatic feature of android and iphones whereby they automatically send location data to the call centre when 999 is dialled.
Right clicking on most map applications will bring up the current location in a latitute/longitude format.
WhatFreeWords
Fourkingmaps (bit sweary, that one mind)
The system has attracted criticism for the fact that the algorithm that allocates the addresses is proprietary and that there are many ways, especially when conveying the addresses non electroncially, that miscommunication can occur.
A research paper notes the many ways addresses can be miscommunicated :
and comments :
"I would caution against the widespread adoption of W3W, especially in applications with a noisy communication channel between sender and receiver. This work has tested some of the claims that W3W makes about their algorithm. These claims are not borne out under scrutiny which suggests that W3W should not be adopted as critical infrastructure without a thorough evaluation against a number of competing alternatives."
Meanwhile,an BBC article where Mark Lewis, from Mountain Rescue England and Wales (MREW), gave 45 examples from the previous 12 months where locations given for lost or injured walkers turned out to be incorrect, including: a database from the last 12 months which listed 45 locations across England and Wales that rescuers received from lost or injured walkers and climbers, which turned out to be incorrect.
jump.legend.warblers which was in Vietnam
Examples included: jump.legend.warblers which was in Vietnam
duties.factory.person was located in China
refuse.housework.housebound was in Australia
flesh.unzip.whirlwind was in Russia
adding that "We are finding there are a lot of spelling issues, which might be from when locations are given to the emergency services. Local accents have also been a problem."
A compilation of stories gives more examples of chaos caused by the use of W3W.
Perhaps more importantly than the technical concerns is the fact that the algorithm is proprietary. In contrast to many open source alternatives, if W3W goes bust, any W3W links on the internet (outdoor locations perhaps, or maybe orienteering route markers, or road traffic accident locations) immediately become useless.
And that is to leave aside the concern that the, very litigious, W3W company follows many other online companies in taking the path of enshittification in order to drive revenue at the expence of user experience.
Other, open source alternatives exist:
Advanced Mobile Location (AML) is an automatic feature of android and iphones whereby they automatically send location data to the call centre when 999 is dialled.
Right clicking on most map applications will bring up the current location in a latitute/longitude format.
WhatFreeWords
Fourkingmaps (bit sweary, that one mind)