Likewise
Does it work offline i.e. when I have a phone signal but no 3G/4G?
logging in earlier in the day however i was able to get the w3w location for my home, Squadron and place of work just by using chrome and the navigational skills to scroll my local area.
if there is a cost i don’t think this is for the single user but could imagine this being for those businesses (including the 999 crews) who would use it.
regardless of what it offers over OS or not, if this is gaining ground (which it is) and gaining interest with the public (which it is) and being seen as a credible alternative for several courier businesses (which again it is looking at their website) if the public are going to be calling 999 and offering a w3w location then the emergency services need to be able to react to that in much the same way they did when lat and long locations became more readily accessable to the general public with handheld gps devices.
was there a similar argument against lat and long locations when OS grid references work?
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The what3words system uses a mathematical algorithm, held in a package around 20MB in size. As such, it will comfortably fit on a modern smartphone. It means that you can search for a 3 word address online and offline, or where a data connection is unreliable.
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Well you could be concerned that a) the Emergency Services don’t have access to OS mapping either in digital or paper form (their will be exceptions from force to force but in general they don’t. b) they receive no training in the use of OS maps and most wouldn’t have a clue what they were doing with a grid reference if you gave them one.
On my team at work I reckon 2 of us would be able to find you quickly and easily using a grid reference. (Although only I have OS on my phone and I’ve only bought the tiles we use for DofE so if you can call for help on one of our Bronze routes that would be great). However everyone would be able to find you using what3words (which is built into our work mobile devices).
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This is a shocking state of affairs!
I guess OS wanted more money for licensing and service integration?
As the same could surely have been done with lat/long or grid refs… Being digital no map reading would be required.
I figure that any time calling specifically for use of maps is rural, river, etc when specialist units (search and rescue, mountain rescue, coastguard, raft-mounted water fairies)?
That’s really not a concern though. It doesn’t matter if the person doing the work has any navigation ability.
The OS grid is merely a coordinate system. They can input the grid reference into a simple navigation system and have it pinpoint a location whether or not they have any personal knowledge of how it works.
The W3W system is no better or worse in that regard. On its own it’s just three random words. It’s not until it’s been input into the system that it has any use, and that is just as achievable with W3W, OS grid, Lat/Lon, or any other coordinate system.
The potential advantage that the OS Grid has over W3W is that it’s actually is possible to plot it on a paper map and use good old fashioned navigation to find it if the need arose. The same can’t be said for W3W.
The point I made earlier and which still stands is that this system brings absolutely no tangible advantages to us in the UK whatsoever. The fact that it’s built into your work devices is evidence of nothing more than that people have jumped onto it because it’s new and different.
Back when I worked in electronics everything we developed was basically just a new way of doing something existing. People loved it not because it was solving a genuine problem, but simply because it was something new.
Except the Emergency Services won’t be able to use your nice OS reference because they don’t have the software or the maps to use it. If you phone our control room with a grid reference you will die of starvation before anything happens, if you phone them with what3words something will happen much faster.
It’s not a matter of jumping on a bandwagon in the last decade we have never had the ability to access OS, we have always worked to post codes and guesswork/being talked in from there, what3words is far superior to that system I can tell you for a fact.
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Fine. But that’s not evidence that the W3W system is better… Only that someone has jumped onto the band wagon and paid money for it.
Give me a location as an OS grid reference (or any other coordinate format) now and with a totally free app I can determine the bearing and distance to the target and navigate straight to it.
The technology has long been available, regardless as to whether or not your force ever used it.
Any force could just as easily adopt an OS based system as W3W system.
Except the vast majority of the public don’t know how to work out an OS grid reference.
W3W is free and it’s idiot proof to use.
OS Mapping isn’t free and is easy to make mistakes on.
I know which one I’d rather be using as a first responder.
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Again, that doesn’t matter. If they use an app to find out their 3 words they can use an app to find out their grid reference. All for free.
OS Maps aren’t free, but the OS Grid is simply a coordinate system based upon a particular datum.
To be frank, the fact that some people seem to be missing my point here - catastrophically - is just further proof that most people are neither aware of nor have particular interest in whether a particular system is better or not; they just jump on things because they’re new and fancy and an advertiser has told them it’s good.
This W3W system might catch on, or it might fall out of favour - as many other fads have done - once someone realises that they can get the same thing for less money.
All grid based navigation systems work the same way, no one is disputing that.
The point is that we now have 2 systems one of which is quite Niche and which people don’t use and the other is quite popular and is one which people are using.
Your point seems to be that since the basic concept is the same we don’t need to embrace innovation because the old one would still work.
You are clearly Teflon in disguise and I claim my £5.
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W3W appears to be integrated with Google Maps and is better suited for vehicle navigation.
I’ve been playing around and W3W appears to be far more intuitive. OS Locate and OS Maps apps aren’t even locating me. Within 2 seconds of opening w3w, it gives me my location, 3 words, and it’s then easy to find another location.
Hitting “navigate” opens up google maps and boom. I’m navigating. If the location is off the road, google takes me to the closest point on the road and shows my relative location to the target.
From the W3W app, I can also see relative position and/or I can open up my compass app instead of maps.
No… My point was - And to avoid having to scroll up I’ll re quote it here:
This isn’t innovention… This is just finding another way to do the same old thing and making money by marketing it as something fancy.
You say it’s “the same old thing”, but as we know this is global - we’ve been relatively spoiled with OS.
So here we have a unified, global system, which easily integrates into other technologies, including (and importantly for emergency services) road navigation systems… Seemingly better than the OS equivalent.
It’s free and easily accessible to the layperson.
It’s easy to use and understand.
The system works and has already “caught on”.
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To be honest, I don’t use any OS brand software.
That’s a nice feature but it’s nothing special. All that is happening there is that W3W is working out a Lat/Lon and is passing it via the API to Google maps.
Lots of other systems work in exactly the same way - including plenty of other free software.
Input an OS reference, the software converts it to Lat/Lon and passes it to Google Maps - the exact same thing happens. Google maps opens up and the location is tagged.
But apparently it’s not free for anyone wanting to provide a service; they are apparently required to pay a licence fee.
The fact that the system is global has absolutely no bearing on its use for emergency location within the UK (which is after all what we are supposedly discussing here).
Will it last? Maybe. Maybe not.
That’s not what I’m talking about.
People keep attempting to point out why this system is better - it just isn’t. It’s merely an alternative.
As would be the case for any other system (unless a system was developed from within).
Well it is better, because it’s the one everyone is using!
If emergency services (or the less relevant to this thread: couriers, and others) are using the system then that automatically makes it better for us to use.
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