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Is this a paid ad on the BBC? If What3Words was an open database, it would be a decent system. But it's a proprietary database on top of GPS controlled by a company that aggressively uses the DMCA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words#Criticism

The BBC article doesn't explain why this is better than lat/lon other than a quote saying "I tried to get people to use longitude and latitude but that never caught on," by the company's founder.

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I like this much better than Lat/Lon. Which number comes first? How much precision? Positive/Negative vs North/South or East/West. Coordinates are great, but not for the masses IMO.

All that said, yes this needs to be an open standard if it wants adoption. I really like the idea, so hope it goes in that direction.

maybe this is better? just discovered it myself but it appears to be open: https://plus.codes/

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