what3words describes itself as “the simplest way to communicate location”. Essentially, the service creates a three word phrase for every 9-square-meter point on the earth.
I came across this via Joon Ian Wong’s Quartz piece regarding Mongolia’s upcoming adoption of this system since many of its people do not have a mailing address:
Mongol Post is switching to the What3Words system because there are too few named streets in its territory. The mail network provides service over 1.5 million square km (580,000 square miles), an area that’s three times the size of Spain, though much of that area is uninhabited. Mongolia is among the world’s most sparsely populated countries, and about a quarter of its population is nomadic, according to the World Bank.
I’m just digging into what3words and how Mongolia will put it to use. Fascinating stuff.
