TEDGlobal 2017
Chris Sheldrick: A precise, three-word address for every place on earth
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With what3words, Chris Sheldrick and his team have divided the entire planet into three-meter squares and assigned each a unique, three-word identifier, like famous.splice.writers or blocks.evenly.breed, giving a precise address to the billions of people worldwide who don't have one. In this quick talk about a big idea, Sheldrick explains the economic and political implications of giving everyone an accurate address -- from building infrastructure to sending aid to disaster zones to delivering hot pizza.
Chris Sheldrick - Entrepreneur
Chris Sheldrick is providing a precise and simple way to talk about location, by dividing the world into a grid of three-meter by three-meter squares and assigning each one a unique three-word address. Full bio
Chris Sheldrick is providing a precise and simple way to talk about location, by dividing the world into a grid of three-meter by three-meter squares and assigning each one a unique three-word address. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:13
According to the UN,
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billions of people still live
without an address.
without an address.
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The economist Hernando de Soto said,
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"Without an address,
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you live outside the law.
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You might as well not exist."
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I'm here to tell you how my team and I
are trying to change that.
are trying to change that.
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If you go to an online map
and look at a favela in Brazil
and look at a favela in Brazil
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or a township in South Africa,
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you'll see a few streets
but a lot of empty space.
but a lot of empty space.
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But if you flip to satellite view,
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there are thousands of people,
homes and businesses
homes and businesses
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in these vast, unmapped
and unaddressed spaces.
and unaddressed spaces.
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In Ghana's capital, Accra,
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there are numbers and letters
scrawled onto the sides of walls,
scrawled onto the sides of walls,
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where they piloted address systems
but not finished them.
but not finished them.
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But these places,
these unaddressed places,
these unaddressed places,
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hold huge economic potential.
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Here's why the issue
of addressing stuck with me.
of addressing stuck with me.
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I worked in the music
business for 10 years,
business for 10 years,
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and what you may not know
about the music world
about the music world
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is that every day, people struggle
with the problems of addressing.
with the problems of addressing.
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So from the musicians
who have to find the gigs
who have to find the gigs
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to the production companies
who bring the equipment,
who bring the equipment,
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everyone somehow always gets lost.
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We even had to add someone
to our schedules
to our schedules
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who was the person you called
when you thought you'd arrived
when you thought you'd arrived
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but then realized you hadn't.
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And we had some pretty bad days,
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like in Italy, where a truck driver
unloaded all the equipment
unloaded all the equipment
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an hour north of Rome,
not an hour south of Rome,
not an hour south of Rome,
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and a slightly worse day
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where a keyboard player
called me and said,
called me and said,
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"Chris, don't panic,
but we may have just sound-checked
but we may have just sound-checked
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at the wrong people's wedding."
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(Laughter)
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So not long after the fated Rome event,
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I chatted this through
with a friend of mine
with a friend of mine
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who is a mathematician,
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and we thought it was a problem
we could do something about.
we could do something about.
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We thought, well,
we could make a new system,
we could make a new system,
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but it shouldn't look like the old system.
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We agreed that addresses were bad.
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We knew we wanted something very precise,
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but GPS coordinates,
latitude and longitude,
latitude and longitude,
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were just too complicated.
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So we divided the world
into three-meter squares.
into three-meter squares.
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The world divides into around 57 trillion
three-meter squares,
three-meter squares,
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and we found that there are
enough combinations
enough combinations
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of three dictionary words
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that we could name every three-meter
square in the world uniquely
square in the world uniquely
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with just three words.
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We used 40,000 words,
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so that's 40,000 cubed,
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64 trillion combinations of three words,
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which is more than enough for
the 57-trillion-odd three-meter squares,
the 57-trillion-odd three-meter squares,
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with a few spare.
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So that's exactly what we did.
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We divided the world
into three-meter squares,
into three-meter squares,
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gave each one a unique,
three-word identifier --
three-word identifier --
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what we call a three-word address.
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So for example, right here,
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I'm standing at mustards-coupons-pinup,
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(Laughter)
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but over here ...
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I'm standing at pinched-
singularly-tutorial.
singularly-tutorial.
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But we haven't just done this in English.
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We thought it was essential that people
should be able to use this system
should be able to use this system
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in their own language.
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So far, we've built it into 14 languages,
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including French, Swahili and Arabic,
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and we're working on more now,
like Xhosa, Zulu and Hindi.
like Xhosa, Zulu and Hindi.
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But this idea can do a lot more
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than just get my musicians
to their gigs on time.
to their gigs on time.
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If the 75 percent of countries
that struggle with reliable addressing
that struggle with reliable addressing
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started using three-word addresses,
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there's a stack of far more
important applications.
important applications.
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In Durban, South Africa,
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an NGO called Gateway Health
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have distributed to 11,000
three-word address signs
three-word address signs
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to their community,
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so the pregnant mothers,
when they go into labor,
when they go into labor,
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can call the emergency services
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and tell them exactly
where to pick them up from,
where to pick them up from,
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because otherwise, the ambulances
have often taken hours to find them.
have often taken hours to find them.
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In Mongolia, the National Post Service
have adopted the system
have adopted the system
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and are now doing deliveries
to many people's houses
to many people's houses
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for the first time.
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The UN is using it
to geotag photos in disaster zones
to geotag photos in disaster zones
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so they can deliver aid
to exactly the right place.
to exactly the right place.
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Even Domino's Pizza
are using it in the Caribbean,
are using it in the Caribbean,
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because they haven't been able
to find customers' homes,
to find customers' homes,
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but they really want to get
their pizza to them while its still hot.
their pizza to them while its still hot.
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Shortly, you'll be able to get into a car,
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speak the three words,
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and the car will navigate you
to that exact spot.
to that exact spot.
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In Africa, the continent
has leapfrogged phone lines
has leapfrogged phone lines
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to go to mobile phones,
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bypassed traditional banks
to go straight to mobile payments.
to go straight to mobile payments.
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We're really proud that the post services
of three African countries --
of three African countries --
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Nigeria, Djibouti and Côte d'Ivoire,
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have gone straight to adopting
three-word addresses,
three-word addresses,
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which means that people in those countries
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have a really simple way
to explain where they live, today.
to explain where they live, today.
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For me, poor addressing
was an annoying frustration,
was an annoying frustration,
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but for billions of people,
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it's a huge business inefficiency,
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severely hampers
their infrastructure growth,
their infrastructure growth,
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and can cost lives.
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We're on a mission to change that,
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three words at a time.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Chris Sheldrick - EntrepreneurChris Sheldrick is providing a precise and simple way to talk about location, by dividing the world into a grid of three-meter by three-meter squares and assigning each one a unique three-word address.
Why you should listen
It's a fundamental logistical problem: not everyone, or everywhere, has a traditional address, and GPS coordinates can be tough to use. While working in the music industry, Chris Sheldrick noticed that bands and equipment kept getting lost on the way to gigs, and he took up the mission to create a better addressing system for the world. He worked with a mathematician friend to devise the what3words algorithm that has named every 3-metre square in the world. Started in 2013, the system is being used by eight national postal services, and has a range of integration partners across the world in fields as varied as humanitarian aid, logistics, and in-car navigation.
Chris Sheldrick | Speaker | TED.com