Ivory Coast has adopted a revolutionary new system of postal addresses that contain just three words. It means that for the first time ever, everyone in the country will be able to receive mail to their house or office. Up until now, people had to rely on post office boxes. There were only 150,000 of these nationwide and people had to rent them, which meant poorer people found it difficult to receive mail. The head of Ivory Coast's post office told the BBC: "We have 150,000 PO boxes for a population of nearly 24 million. That means a postal address is a luxury in Ivory Coast. We have to make postal access available to everyone." He said the three-word addresses would move Ivory Coast into the digital age.
象牙海岸采用了新的革命性的通訊地址,只有三個詞語。這意味著這個國家的人有史以來首次在家里或辦公室接收郵件。目前為止,人們必須使用郵政信箱來收發(fā)信件。全國僅有15萬個信箱,人們必須租用,這意味著窮人很難接收郵件。象牙海岸郵局局長告訴BBC:“我們?nèi)珖薪?400萬人口,而只有15萬個郵箱。這意味著在象牙海岸一個通訊地址非常難得。我們必須讓每個人都有通訊地址。”他表示,三個詞語的通訊地址將使象牙海岸進入數(shù)字化時代。
The Ivory Coast's new postal system is based on the what3words.com geo-mapping system. Its software has divided the world into a grid of 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares, each assigned a unique 3-word address. The software uses latitude and longitude coordinates to precisely pinpoint a location on a global address network. The 22 numbers from these coordinates are converted into three easy to remember words that replace house numbers, street and city names and zip codes. A what3words.com spokesperson said: "Poor addressing might seem no more than annoying in some countries, but around the world, it hampers the growth and development of nations, ultimately costing lives."
象牙海岸新的通訊系統(tǒng)基于what3words.com geo-mapping系統(tǒng)。其軟件將全世界分成57兆個3m x 3m的網(wǎng)格,每個網(wǎng)格指定三個數(shù)字的地址。該軟件使用維度和經(jīng)度坐標來精確指定全球地址網(wǎng)絡上的位置。代表這些坐標的22個數(shù)字被轉(zhuǎn)化為三個容易記憶的詞語來代替郵政編碼,城市名稱,街道和門牌號。what3words.com發(fā)言人表示:“通訊地址不詳在某些國家或許只是令人煩惱,但是在全世界許多地方這種困境妨礙了國家的然榮發(fā)展,最終導致生命的損失。”