what3words: addressing the world Presentation by Tim Williams to BCS Location Information Specialist Group

1. Tim Williams
Head of Business Development
tim.williams@what3words.com

2. THE WORLD IS POORLY ADDRESSED

3. 75% OF THE WORLD HAS INADEQUATE,
POOR OR NO ADDRESSING SYSTEMS

4. 4 BILLION PEOPLE DON’T HAVE AN ADDRESS

6. 22° 59' 23.5" S, 43° 15' 0.799" W
-22.989861, -43.250222

8. No visitors
No post, no deliveries, no taxis
Open a bank account, get utilities
education and healthcare
ID card, mobile phone…
No identity

9. You rely on the geocoder to make sense of what we type into digital maps –
whether from Google, Apple, Nokia...
Making a geocoder that works with 75% accuracy, all the time, in multiple
languages occupies 100% of the time of the dedicated teams of software experts who care
for and feed geocoders.
Getting to 100% accuracy hasn't been done yet and probably never will.”
Gary Gale (Head of APIs, Ordnance Survey) for the Guardian 2014
“Digital maps' unsung hero: how the geocoder puts us on the grid”

10. “Address data is really the most important and interesting
thing to work on [right now].”
Steve Coast (founder of OpenStreetMap), Techcrunch 2014
”For The Love Of Open Mapping Data”

11. POOR ADDRESSING CAN BE EXPENSIVE AND
FRUSTRATING IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD…

12. …AND COSTS LIVES & LIMITS GROWTH IN DEVELOPING
ONES

13. Universal addressing solution which makes it
easy for people to communicate precise location

14. 3x3 metre grid of the world
57 trillion squares
A unique 3 word address for each square

17. SIMPLER, MORE COMMON WORDS IN TOWNS AND CITIES

18. SIMILAR ADDRESSES ALLOCATED FAR APART FOR BUILT-IN
VALIDATION

19. Now:
English
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Russian
German
Turkish
Swedish
In progress:
Italian
Greek
Arabic
Swahili
and more…

20. A COMMON WAY TO COMMUNICATE LOCATION

21. Universal
Disruptive
Empowering

22. Pricing
Our aim is to:
make what3words as accessible as possible
support people who are doing good things around the world
remove the barriers to what3words gaining widespread adoption
www.what3words.com/pricing

26. Online API – sign-up online
Offline SDKs – 10 Mbytes for iOS or Android
what3words -> location
location -> what3words

33. speech trade logic