What 3 Words

When I first came across this website some months ago now, I was struggling to see the value of it.
It essentially splits the world up into squares, each of which is attached to three random words. These words can then be used to identify the square by reversing the process. In essence, it means that a location can have three random words as a unique reference.
I wondered why having three words for a location was a good thing.

e.g. the Hayward Theatre, where I was last week for a CPD session, has these three words to identify it...
snoozing, coached, fork
The makers of the website have now answered that question, and made me see the site in a different light.
The business case is described on the site too.
The site now has a series of important USE CASES. These make the point about the value in several business sectors.

A useful activity related to the value of mapping and location would be to show students the site, and zoom in on area. Show them that the classroom, for example has three words to represent it, and ask them what value they can see in the site.
How else could the same location be described to someone else?
Think 6 figure GR, think latitude and longitude... which would be easier to remember?
One particular use that I liked was in favelas or other places where a conventional address was not available, the three words could be used with an app to locate an address for deliveries, medical help etc.

Once the students have worked out what they might do with it, show them the actual use cases that the site creators have come up with, and they will perhaps see a wider range of uses, or created some options which are even more interesting...

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