[OSGeo-Standards] Fundamental need: simple answers to the simple question "where?"
Munich Orientation Convention
volksnav at volksnav.de
Mon Jan 16 02:19:01 PST 2017
Dear all,
the degeneration goes on: despite of the existence of open location codes
[1] , the Mongolpost, La Poste [2] , Philippine Red Cross [3] etc. are
adopting a proprietary system based on names (!!??).
This seems to confirm the following statements:
1 - there is a huge but neglected demand for non-academic answers to the
simple question "where?"
2 - the emperor is naked, all existing standards are most inadequate:
Squared / non-metrical / 360 basic directions / no self-guiding / pointing
only / no or almost no benefit on signage and maps
3 - there are applications where the merit principle has - or should have -
much more priority than the mere characteristic "not the best but open", for
example:
- logistic,
- safety, including evacuations,
- education / GeoAwareness,
- care for the blind (India?) and other minorities
The threat now is: we possibly will have to change the geographical
information on our business cards, for example from
KT3 6BD (UK) to coffee.slavery.meeting or
евертитур . Делецтус . Виртуте
and again nobody will ask what's our preference.
I'm proposing a standard not only for location codes which even children can
understand but for all orientation tools including mental ones, house number
signs and self-guiding. If it would be entirely "open", this automatically
would generate hundreds of "better" standards, destroying the main goal.
The system has elements like the division of the horizon into 12 directions
which obviously are free and open. For the proprietary elements, I'm
proposing the proven but forgotten licensing by symbolical fees. With this,
it is also possible to remunerate secondary inventions, a proven but
forgotten method to animate people to be creative.
I'm still the opinion that OSGeo would be an adequate para-authority for
this standard proposal. I was invited to post this here many months ago but
the black-or-white question impeded any discussions and even the
dissemination of the free elements. A geography teacher in Brazil got her
diploma with a final study about imaginary clocks for children [4]. The
practical part was the finding of hidden chocolate eggs. Would this work
with 3 names?
My hope is that the 3 names tragic will now open eyes and minds. I'd
appreciate a discussion where the depth of openness will be discussed after
there is a common sense about the 25 (!) benefits of imaginary clocks. The
fundamental piece is the tool r100 [5], already defined for about 700 main
cities, mountains (Everest) etc. Remark: the core of r100 is not software
but open knowledge.
Let's make symbolical fees be great again?
Or are there other suggestions in favor of the consumer?
Henrique
[1] <http://www.openlocationcode.com> www.openlocationcode.com and
<http://www.mapcode.com> www.mapcode.com
[2] <http://what3words.com/2016/12/la-poste/>
http://what3words.com/2016/12/la-poste/
[3] <http://what3words.com/2016/12/red-cross-philippines/>
http://what3words.com/2016/12/red-cross-philippines/
[4] http://geografiadainfancia.blogspot.de/
[5] r100 www.volksnav.de/r100
Beijing GPX http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/VolksNav/traces/2292518 KML
www.volksnav.de/Beijing/Beijing_r100.kml
Degeneration <http://www.volksnav.de/evolution> www.volksnav.de/evolution
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