Review of Innovative Locations and Addressing in Australia 1 November 2015 Version 1.0 Innovative Locations and Addressing in Australia COPYRIGHT All material in this publication is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence, save for content supplied by third parties, and logos. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence is a standard form licence agreement that allows you to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt this publication provided you attribute the work. The full licence terms are available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/ legalcode. A summary of the licence terms is available from creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en. DISCLAIMER While every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, the CRCSI does not offer any express or implied warranties or representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein. The CRCSI and its employees and agents accept no liability in negligence for the information (or the use of such information) provided in this report. ii Innovative Locations and Addressing in Australia Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................ 2 1.1 Project Background and Objectives ................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Scope & Deliverables ...................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Methodology .................................................................................................................................... 2 2 Problem Definition ..................................................... 4 3 Alternative Location Referencing Systems ................ 7 3.1 Geepers .......................................................................................................................................... 7 3.2 MapCode ......................................................................................................................................... 7 3.3 What3words .................................................................................................................................... 7 3.4 Open Location Code (Plus+Codes) ................................................................................................ 7 3.5 Address Exchange (AddEx) ............................................................................................................ 8 3.6 Other Systems and Comparisons ................................................................................................... 8 4 User Stories and User Domains ................................ 9 5 Key Features ........................................................... 14 5.1 Key Workflow ................................................................................................................................ 15 5.2 User Stories and Features ............................................................................................................ 18 6 Comparative Analysis .............................................. 24 7 Research & Development Opportunities ................. 27 8 Scoping a Pilot ........................................................ 29 1 Innovative Locations and Addressing in Australia 1 Introduction 1.1 Project Background and Objectives In 2014, the CRCSI study into the future of geocoded addressing in Australia (see: http://bit.do/GeocodedAddressing) concluded that systemic issues with the current jurisdictional addressing supply-chains prevent ‘authoritative’ address datasets such as PSMA’s Geocoded National Address File (G-NAF1) from meeting the longer-term user needs. The report recommended augmenting traditional methods with innovative crowd-sourced and community-based location approaches, using an iterative, experimental approach. At the same time, several such innovative approaches to location are emerging, with what3words (http://what3words.com/), MapCode (http://www.mapcode.com/), Plus+Codes (https://plus.codes/) and Geepers (http://www.geepers.com/) being among the foremost and high-profile ones, utilising a short alphanumeric code and/or a social reference system, respectively. In this project, we aim to scope a Pilot Study as a first step to explore how innovative solutions may contribute to better communication of location in Australia. 1.2 Scope & Deliverables The projects address’ key tasks: Conduct exploratory conversations (workshops, interviews) with relevant stakeholders (CRCSI, technology providers, selected user representatives); Identify relevant touch-points with P3 research topics (eg Supply Chains, crowd sourcing, semantic web, federation); Define a number of real world use-cases and user-benefits; Provide a Gap, SWOT and comparative analysis of the innovative approaches and their ability to enhance and be incorporated into the Geocoded Address Supply chain; Scope a series of collaborative experiments; and Develop a work program in consultation with CRCSI and other technology providers, as well as identify potential sponsors for the experiments. The deliverable will be a concise report covering the goals & scope as defined above, as well as identifying industrial opportunities that might be enhanced by applied research expertise and linkages. 1.3 Methodology The findings presented in this document have been compiled through: A user-stories workshop in Canberra on 4 June 2015, with representatives from government, academia and addressing companies; A series of follow-up interviews with potential users, solution providers and academic sources; A validation workshop in Melbourne on 20 August 2015, with representatives from government, academia and addressing companies; An R&D workshop in Perth on 26 August 2015, with representatives from the CRCSI’s Research Program 3 (P3), to determine potential research topics; Desk-study and analysis. A Project Steering Group consisting of Kylie Armstrong (CRCSI), Jamie Baker (Department of Communications), and Tim Neal (Department of Communications) conducted regular project reviews. A full overview of workshops and participants can be found in Appendix 1 – Workshop Participants. 1 http://www.psma.com.au/?product=g-naf 2 Innovative Locations and Addressing in Australia 1.4 Glossary Term Explanation API Application Programming Interface The cadastre of a country is its register of property titles and is usually managed by Cadastral government agencies – in Australia these are often called Land Titles Offices. The parcel information recorded includes an accurate description of the location of a parcel of land and who owns it. CRCSI Collaborative Research Centre for Spatial Information The authoritative manager of data set, service or component. Responsible for the Custodian declaration of the policies regarding use and accounting for the resource. G-NAF Geocoded National Address File. http://www.psma.com.au/?product=g-naf GIS Geographic Information System The ability of different information technology systems and software applications to Interoperability communicate, exchange data, and use the information that has been exchanged Open Data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone - subject Open Data only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike. Computer software with its source code made available including the rights to study, Open Source change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose A listing of the specific, individual services, components, datasets or other entities related Registry to the GIS/relevant to its users. Describes a work process with a focus of the IT components involved, actors, activities Use-Case and outcomes Application logic accessible across a network using standard Internet protocols. Web Sers combine the best aspects of component-based development and the Web. Like components, Web Services represent functionality that can be easily reused without Web Service knowing how the service is implemented. Unlike current component technologies that are accessed via proprietary protocols, Web Services are accessed via ubiquitous Web protocols (e.g. http) using universally accepted data formats (e.g. XML). 3 Innovative Locations and Addressing in Australia 2 Problem Definition The 2014 CRCSI study into the future of geocoded addressing in Australia (see: http://bit.do/GeocodedAddressing) concluded that the current supply chain for geocoded address data in Australia, leads to a national dataset that: Is cost-inefficient; Has significant duplication of effort, inconsistencies, and ambiguities; Is based on a supply chain that is structurally unable to provide currency levels that many users expect; Doesn’t allow to identify non property-based locations, or locations that don’t have a (complete) street address. Makes it impossible or cumbersome for citizens to report errors or updates. Is not designed to support emerging requirements and use-cases. As an illustration, see an example below for a block of residential and commercial units in Surry Hills, NSW. Figure 1 One property, many location descriptors The cadastral parcel is known as 99-15 Flinders Street, Strata Plan 48654. It is composed of 24 Strata lots, and 26 ‘units’, as lot 24 has 3 separate tenants or ‘shops’. G-NAF lists both the parcel (99-115 Flinders Street), and 21(!) units at the same address, all with the same geocode of the parcel centroid. In reality, to satisfy the myriad of use-cases of residents, tenants