Universal Alphanumeric Postal Code Proposed

Meshach writes "An article in the Globe and Mail is discussing a possible change to the way postal codes are assigned over the world. NAC Geographic Products will be using Microsoft's MapPoint to power their Mobile Location-Based Services Network, which could change all postal codes in the world to a simpler, more universal format."

Comments

Call me a stick in the mud...

[ackthpt]

Phoo. Why not just use one of the GPS systems. The problem with oversimplifying like this (as idealists tend to do) is they rarely reflect the reality of actual routing, like, "Gee, it's only 12 miles 'as the crow flies'", yet the route in question winds all over the place.

If they really wanted to simplify postal coding/addressing they'd do something first about these damn addresses for people in South Korea, and a few other countries, which are like a whole paragraph long! Ever have to fill out those little customs forms? Yeah, you know how fun that can be.

Idealists are more trouble to logistics than would be required to just take them out back and drown them it a bucket of water.

"Hey, isn't that a quarter in that bucket?"

Besides, strong initial resistance to this plan, there's probably some disingenuous patent and royalty speculation riding on this.

Re:Call me a stick in the mud...

[TopShelf]

As I recall from a visit to Tokyo, the street numbers aren't even sequential by position, but were instead handed out over time. For instance, 122 Main wouldn't be next to 124 Main - it could be several spots down the block, because it was established about the same time...

Re:Call me a stick in the mud...

[sweeze]

except that they aren't even street numbers!

addresses in japan go something like this:
Prefecture
City
District
Neighborhood
Number

where neighborhood and district are rather vaguely defined, and the size of each depends upon the area. So for example:
Chiba Prefecture
Funabashi City
Higashi (East) Funabashi
Neighbohood #10
Building #15

is something of a rough translation of what my address in japan was: where the numbers of the neighborhoods was in arbitrary order and the numbers of the buildings in each neighborhood was an arbitrary order.

fun, isn't it?

Re:Call me a stick in the mud...

[anonymous loser]

Yes, and this is exactly why such a large percentage of people have GPS in their cars now in Japan, whereas the adoption rate in the US is (relatively speaking) very small. Unless you're a taxi driver, postal worker, or pizza delivery guy, finding any address in Japan without specific instructions (turn left at the Family Mart, right next to the kaiten sushi place) is nearly as bad as not having the address to begin with.

Re:Call me a stick in the mud...

[scotartt]

This is just poor design;

if (country == US)
ValidateZip
else if (country == Canada)
ValidatePostalCode
else if (country == UK)
etc...

Here's an alternative (translate to your own favourite language is left as an exercise for the reader);

interface PostCode {
public boolean validate(String postCode);
}

class PostCodeUK implements PostCode {
public boolean validate(String postCode) {
// uk specific rules here
}
}

class PostCodeUSA implements PostCode {
public boolean validate(String postCode) {
// usa specific rules here
}
}

/*
* ... etc ...
*/

class PostCodeFactory {
static public PostCode getPostCode(Locale locale) {
// construct valid post code object here
}
}

// business logic;

String somecode;
Letter letter;
Country destination;

PostCode destPostCode = PostCodeFactory.getPostCode(destination.locale);

if (destPostCode.validate(someCode)) {
destPostCode.setPostCode(someCode);
sendLetter(letter, destPostCode);
} else {
// present error to user
}
// continue ...

That's just off the top of my head and I can see a million improvements to that code already.

I don't see what the problem is with putting the country and the post code is. After all the sending country doesn't care where postcode 'Potts Point NSW 2011 Australia' is they just need to send it to Australia. After it gets here then the Australia Post service can worry about where '2011' is.

In this proposed scheme they'd have to examine the code to find out what country to send it to in the first place. If they want "universal" code why not just pre- or post- pend the two letter country code on the code. So it becomes AU-2011. or US-90211. That's universal, and unique. And simple and HUMAN READABLE. If you don't care about human readability let's just allocate every address a unique barcode.

thank god!

[pioneer]

thank god.... from a developer standpoint having to have 'n' different database table entries for all the countries you support is a pain in the ass...

mappoint.com

[presearch]

mappoint.com?

I just tried it with my address and got this:

- Maps & Directions
You have reached a page that is experiencing problems or a location where a page does not exist.
Try again later or visit our home page at maps.msn.com or maps.msn.co.uk

Great choice in location service providers.
Microsoft rules.

Hmm, maybe...

[FroMan]

Based on latitude and longitude, the NAC system can represent an area the size of a province using two alphanumeric characters. A "universal address" with six characters will narrow down a search to an area measuring one square kilometre. With 10 characters, it can represent a specific area measuring one square metre.

Wow, they want to reinvent latitude/longitude (sp?).

I have an idea, lets make this round thing and poke another round hole in the center. Then take this stick and put it through the hole. We'll call it a wheel.

Anyone with a globe can understand lat/long, why not fly with that if you think country codes and addresses don't work well enough. No sense in reinventing the wheel here.

Re:Too complicated for 99% of mail

[bigpat]

"Besides, most mail is local. It's like dialing the country code and area code just to order a pizza."

Here in eastern Massachusetts we have to dial the area code just to order a pizza.

Check Bit

[marklyon]

I'm thinking there is going to need to be a verification digit in there as well.

It'd be quite easy for me to accidentally get an invalid character in there, and without a quick way to verify the authenticity of the string, it's likely there will be a lot of misrouted shipments.

And removing any letters that have similar sounds to other letters would be a good idea. And o, so it's not confused with 0.

Re:Too complicated for 99% of mail

[Lee Horrocks]

Funny, other countries (like Canada) manage to use letters in their postal codes & have automated mail sorting equipment too...

Of course, to be fair, Canadian Postal codes don't use several letters, including IJO & Q.

about damn time!

[BigBir3d]

How about the same for phone numbers also?

Anyone else like the idea of permanent (more or less) phone numbers that follow you no matter where you live? Some talk of doing that in the US to cut down on the quantity of phone numbers that are kept out of rotation everytime somebody moves and gets a replacement phone number.

My dream (Unique Post Codes)

[PhoenixOne]

I move around a lot. My dream would be to have a unique post code for each person. The post office could keep this number in a database and, if anybody wanted to reach you, they would just have to write your name and number and it would be sent to your current address. I would even pay to have this happen. I'm just tired of filling out forms and having people send me stuff at addresses that I haven't lived in for years...

I dont want Bill Gates dictating my snail mail too

[L0J46K]

Simply put, I do not want a microsoft product ruling my snail mail. Cool idea, but getting it past the postmaster general would be a neat trick. I do not know too much about the post in other countries, but in the US, the zip code works just fine. I do not forsee the time or budget of many coutries laboring to put into effect a whole new sorting system. There would be no more 90210!

Re:They've had this in the military for ages....

[SmittyTheBold]

What about apartment buildings with more than one floor?

Won't work so easily

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Their addresses are VERY hard to remember
I can remmeber 10 addresses of my relatives
and friends - with the new system - I will
have problem with remembering mine

2. Mistakes require data redundancy - people
are not perfect - you need at least
3 bits for every encoded data bit - otherwise
it will be just a lot of trouble

3. Basing this on geographical location is not
the optimal way - people are not equally
distributed on earth + their distribution
is dynamic. Current system is flexible.
with new one I can imagine something like
codes shortages - just like IP shortages.

"Sorry man, we thought nobody would
ever need 640k of addresses here ... "

just pick a standard address format

[73939133]

I think it would be sufficient if countries could adopt a common address format; what goes into it is less important. This could look like:

John Smith
country specific
country specific
US-CA-94111

Johann Schmidt
country specific
country specific
DE-11101B

Haruo Tanaka
country specific
country specific
JP-999X763

That is, the ZIP code is always at the bottom, and it begins with the two letter ISO country identifier. The stuff after the dash is country specific.

That way, each country can keep whatever codes they are using and that work for their local setup, but postal sorting equipment can be standardized.

GPS-based ZIP-codes, on the other hand, seem pretty pointless. If you really want to get a ZIP code from a location, a web site can translate GPS addresses into zip codes if you like.

Sample Directions

[b!arg]

Make a right on 3HG6T and travel for about half a mile, then left at the Texaco station, a right onto 9Y7FG and then a quick left onto H7RWW, we're the yellow house on the left. Just look for the 6 ft sign on the house that says H7RWW BP9YT...

Although considering all the letters, most people might be talking with the military-like phonetic alphabet

This system is badly designed.

[btempleton]

A good system would have the following criteria:

a) It would avoid OCR errors and verbal transcription errors by not using any two alphanums that look or sound alike. So yes, B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V all mean the same thing (sound-alike), as do 0 and O, 1 and L, 5 and S and so on. Yes, that makes the strings a lot longer

b) Instead of trying to code GPS into this space, sell aliases. Let me pick any alias that maps to my address, and have companies escrow the mapping from them to GPS or street address. My address should be "Brad's House Here" or something like that.

c) When doing the above, each name must have characters added to it which perform an ECC function, so you can detect and correct any transposition or character totally wrong. For some that will mean they pick a nice string and add something random to it. Clever people will find words that meet the ECC test.

d) This way, if I move, my postal address stays the same. And I can register for a global do not mail list.

it starts from a good intention...

[chrispy666]

I mean, in countries like Japan (where I am atm) or China, that don't have street names or coherent organization of the codes, this could make life easier. At least maybe then the post guys will finally deliver my mail in my mail box, and not in some random foreigner resident's box that lives 3 blocks away...

now, on the matter of having miscrosoft managing all this... HELLLLOOOO ?! what about a postal code that can help tracing what software I bought and what computer I am using and other Big Brother kinda things while they are at it ?

I am all for a more standard way of labelling addresses, but it has to be done by an independant organization, not an omni-present company that would bombard me with spam about their new Windows XTreme.