WHAT’S INSIDE 1. the - Global Address Data Association€¦ · WHAT’S INSIDE 1. Addressing the...
Transcript of WHAT’S INSIDE 1. the - Global Address Data Association€¦ · WHAT’S INSIDE 1. Addressing the...
1
WHAT’S INSIDE
1. Addressing the Unaddressed Continues its Work in India
2. Ecompro – The UPU Project to Improve International Postal Parcel Systems
3. 4 Billion People Without an Address – Balderdash. Graham Rhind’s calculation.
4. When is a Postcode not a Postcode? When it’s an Eircode!
5. Update on the UPU Addressing Conference October 26‐27, 2015.
6. Last thoughts …Why the Address and Identity are core subjects for GADA.
We’re Sorry…..
We had hoped to include in this issue: India’s
Unique Identity Project (UID)‐Aadhaar
The Promise of a permanent change in benefits
transfers, and so much else… By Chetan Sharma
– CEO & Founder, Datamation Group.
Unfortunately, it is too long for this newsletter.
Please download this excellent description of
the project which is giving every resident of
India an identity card:
http://www.globaladdress.org/.
2
Addressing the Unaddressed Continues its Work in India
On 18 May, Addressing the Unaddressed (AU) celebrated the completion of an addressing project
in a second slum in Kolkata, India. On that date AU will have provided geolocation addresses to some
4500 homes and a population of 25,000 people over a two year period. These two slum areas are called
Chetla and Panchanantala.
The people there, often living in quite desperate circumstances, have now received addresses on
the front doors of their homes. Some have lived for many years with no identity because they have no
address, and thus do not legally exist. They have difficulty when trying to open bank accounts or obtain
government assistance, educate their children, and participate fully as citizens. The project, privately
sponsored and supported by some private donors and by Tina Roche and Alex Pigot of Ireland, (the
inventor of the GO Code geolocation system,) has made a difference.
Starting some three years ago in March 2012, Alex began calculating the GO Code address for each
of the dwellings in Chetla. The process involves standing at the front door of the tiny dwellings (which is
about 4 square metres in size) with a highly accurate GPS device which displays the latitude and
longitude of that point, and then applying a mathematical formula to that to produce a GO Code
number. That number is first applied to the door with indelible ink pen, and a record of the number
made in a computer database.
In the beginning the
numbers were attached to
each residence by a flexible
plastic sheet sign in keeping
with the materials being used
to build the dwellings, but
this design was abandoned
when it was suggested these
could fall off during monsoon
and be harmful when eaten
by the untouchable cows who
roam free in Kolkata. After
3
some experimentation, an economic sign manufacturing system was put in place and now, about one
week after the calculations are completed, a less tasty sign of white characters on a blue background is
applied to the door as a permanent and visible address for the dwelling.
Simultaneously, a record of the geo‐coordinates and GO Code is recorded on a laptop and the data
entered in a directory containing the code, the names of the residents, and the previous partial address
by which the residence was known (normally a "descriptive address"). This data is shared with the local
bank. The residents now having an address can identify themselves to the bank, and to other
government agencies, and open bank accounts, receive government aid payments and in general began
to enjoy the benefits of citizenship. And they can receive post directly to their home rather than being
left on a table in a community center for collection.
Occasionally AU in cooperation with a local bank will hold a bank account opening event in the
community. This introduces people in the community to a secure and trustworthy banking system. In
the Chetla community, of 2500 coded addresses, more than 300 bank accounts were opened at bank
account opening events.
To date, aside from the bovine appetite, there has been no vandalism of the addressing signs on
people's doors. Originally, the project had created local maps of the community containing a map of the
residences with their addresses, but these, drawn on large sheets of banner plastic, proved too
attractive to prevent them from being appropriated for other purposes such as plugging leaky roofs. So
Addressing the Unaddressed now paints the maps themselves on an otherwise immovable object,
usually the wall of one of the slum community’s meeting places.
All of this work is
carried out on a
continual basis by two
permanent employees
(Subhashis Nath and
Sayan Guha) and by
voluntary participation
on a monthly basis of
a local expert in
geolocation, who
supervises the
progress of the project
and acts as a
translator, Dr.
Lingaraja Sahu.
Subhashis Nath (man with glasses) of Addressing the Unaddressed with
foreign volunteers and local community workers who addressed Chetla.
4
There are an estimated 1.7 million people living in slums in Kolkata. AU’s current plan is to address
over 500,000 of these people spread across 35 areas. The speed at which it will be done depends on
funding alone as the solution is proven and scalable.
The next two communities for addressing will both be significant challenges. Bhagar dump is
reported to be one of the largest garbage dumps in South East Asia. The second, Chitpur, is a constantly
changing community of mobile immigrants. Many of these residents have no identification papers and
are wary of dealing with government authorities. And therefore these areas are not as safe as where AU
has been before.
Nevertheless, this is a community that Addressing the Unaddressed feels it has an obligation to
serve. Will it work? Mr. Pigot and his team will soon begin to know.
ECOMPRO – The Universal Postal Union Focuses on Parcels.
At the Universal Postal Union meetings in 2014, the postal systems of the world
launched a carefully constructed, ambitious, and revolutionary development program among
its 200+ member countries. The Ecommerce Program will improve and speed‐up international
parcel deliveries for your benefit.
In reaction to the phenomenal increase in parcel and small packet traffic in the
international system, and the corresponding decrease in letter mail, the UPU adopted a multi‐
faceted e‐commerce development program. This is known by the acronym “ECOMPRO” and it
calls for an aggressive set of activities and improvements, many of them long over‐due. Five
categories of action have been identified: market development, postal electronic services,
logistics, interoperability, and payment.
Market development includes
projects in promoting and supporting
development of online and internet
capability in certain markets. These
development projects are aimed at
medium and small enterprises,
primarily in the developing economies,
and work on standards and security. In
many countries, especially in Latin
America, exporting products is a frustrating bureaucratic nightmare, sometimes worse that the
importing nightmare. Solutions will be developed.
It is a cheering note that the program calls on the Direct Marketing Advisory Board of the
UPU to participate. The “DMAB”, which traces its origins to work jointly sponsored by the USPS
and the US DMA, now has a large membership from the dm industry in the US and Europe and
posts from around the world.
5
The DMAB works within the UPU to “increase the provision by the posts of direct
marketing‐related products and services, including direct mail”. Most of its work consists of
seminars and studies designed to help developing markets import dm techniques, especially
direct mail. Its seminars, specially developed for posts, educates postal personnel on direct
marketing and on how to develop a market. These are held around the world.
Postal electronic services work will focus on authentication of e‐retailers and e‐buyers and
other trust and security exercises, including a secure mail service with .post. “Dot Post, or
“.post”, is the new top‐level domain open only to postal systems. Because of its restricted
access it is highly secure.
Other projects focus on a “global repository for postal e‐shops, an integrated e‐commerce
IT framework” and global track and trace. This latter service is not far off and is much too long
in coming. The goal is to track every parcel in the global postal system just as is done by the
private courier industry.
Logistics projects will work on modifying current strategies and practices to make parcel
and packet carriage faster and more secure; a major goal is to move as much of the process to
the digital realm as possible. This will obviously involve integrating communications with air
carriers and Customs authorities world‐wide. Obviously, this initiative responds to the
electronic and digital applications the private carriers have implemented. Faster and safer are
the goals. Remuneration models will be examined and supply chain security and practices
regarding Customs and airlines will be improved.
As concerns Customs
clearance, the UPU member posts
have an advantage over the
private carriers because their
traffic, which in the past has been
primarily letter mail, is often treated in many countries with a less critical eye, at least with
respect to “packets”, which are treated in the UPU system as “letter mail”. The “packet” can be
up to 2.2 pounds in weight, and millions more of them have entered the international postal
system each year! For example, the number of “packets” imported from China to the US
through the USPS is rumored to have grown by 200% in the last three years.
Also in this category is a project to make returns of parcels more efficient and secure, with
links to Customs for refunds of taxes and duties, if applicable. For many years this has been one
of the business world’s most frequent requests, together with delivery point address
verification.
The Interoperability category includes work on information exchanges to improve speed,
security and customer service. Addressing is specifically referred to with a project for address
verification in EDI messages. It is anticipated that verification would be done within a system
6
that would confirm both sender and receiver addresses by reference to the UPU’s Post*Code
database.
This is an aggressive, much needed, and imaginative, project. To the extent the verification
system becomes something that customers will insist on, this could serve as a powerful
influence to force more countries into expanding their address systems. The project should
definitely result in more accurate delivery and fewer “undeliverables”.
The final category, Payment, includes new product development in the areas of COD
payments. COD is common in countries which lack developed financial services. For example,
in Russia, over 90% of parcels are delivered COD, and it really is “cash”.
In parallel with looking at COD systems there is a project on developing alternative
payments means. One of these is an “escrow service” in which the seller ships only after he
receives confirmation from the destination post that it has received cash payment from the
customer. If the customer accepts the product, payment is released to the seller. It is possible
that there is less “buyer’s
remorse” in this scenario than in a
straight COD delivery. This also
responds to a strongly expressed
opinion in many countries of the
need to provide this service
where credit cards are few and
COD is common.
Finally, there will be a review of the terms of the remuneration amounts payable between
postal operators for postal payment services. The US will, unfortunately, not be much engaged
in this since its payment services are extremely limited.
Given that the next UPU Congress will be in 2016, the POC and its members don’t have
very much runway left to fulfill this extraordinarily aggressive plan. There is a sense of urgency.
This is no doubt driven by the combination of the phenomenal drop in international letter mail
volumes over the last eight years, and the corresponding extraordinary growth in small packet
and parcel traffic.
7
4 billion people without addresses ….balderdash! ‐ Graham Rhind
When it comes to (postal/street) addresses there’s a figure that’s bandied about: 4 billion
of the Earth’s inhabitants do not have a proper address. I don’t know where this figure comes
from, but it’s everywhere. It’s one of those figures that has been repeated and republished
without further thought of checking.
What I do know is that it’s highly inaccurate. Let’s dispell this myth and find a better
figure.
4 billion. It’s one of those digestible numbers that gives the impression that it’s been
plucked from thin air, a number that’s high enough to be newsworthy and difficult to check up
on. Like newspaper reports that 4 billion people watch the final of the World Cup. We know
this figure hasn’t been based on any measurements, and when you think about it, you know it
can’t be true. We know that when a company claims they made $ 1 billion profit, that’s not the
exact number. Their computers have the exact number, down to the last cent, even if they
don’t tell their shareholders or (too often) the tax authorities. I much prefer more accurate
numbers – they’re not only likely to be more accurate, they look more realistic too!
What’s a proper address? Whether you like it or not, “the yellow house opposite the bus
stop in the street of the ladies of the night, Lagos” is a perfectly valid address. You don’t need
street names or building numbers to have a “proper” address – just ask anybody in countries
like Japan and South Korea, where streets are generally not named but where addresses exist,
based on areas and number sequences.
And if addresses need to be valid and fit for purpose … for whom? And for use by whom?
The address in Lagos above will work fine to help people find the building concerned, but might
be less efficient if used for emergency services, utilities or the tax authorities.
I’m not by any means trying to negate the idea that everybody needs addresses – I’ve
been working with addresses for over 20 years and am evangelical about them – but what
8
wouldn’t work as an address for one person might be perfectly understandable and usable for
another.
In short, if we’re going to quote numbers about people without usable addresses, one first
needs to define what an address is and how, and for whom, it becomes usable.
To do that, though, we need to find a basis figure. Let’s try to find a better number to work
with. If 4 billion’s not right, how many is it? It’s actually a hard number to pin down.
Let’s start by making some assumptions. A hefty number of people live in shanty towns
and unplanned slum areas in and near large urban areas. Because these are unplanned they
are largely (though by no means completely) address‐less because, even in countries with
(postal/street) address systems, the authorities haven’t (always) introduced infrastructure to
those areas. This is a sweeping generalisation – many shanty areas are well enough established
to have street names and building numbers. But let’s go with this. The best figure I can find for
the number of people living in these shanty towns is that it is one sixth of the world’s
population, which at the time of writing is estimated at 7,310,125,276. So, if we’re generous
and assume not one of those people has a usable postal street address, that’s 1,218,354,213
people without an address.
1.218 billion. Not 4 billion.
Next, let’s look at countries without street postal deliveries – something I know plenty
about. Unlike this reporter, you can’t assume there are 4 billion people without a postman.
There are countries (about 22) without street‐level postal deliveries. Not having street‐level
postal deliveries does not mean that there are no street addresses in a country. In fact,
countries with highly developed address systems, such as the United States and Canada have
no street‐level deliveries in certain areas. Not having postal services may be indicative of
problems within a country, other than its address system. But If we add up the populations of
all the countries without any street‐level deliveries, we get 509,650,000 (rounded slightly to
save my calculator finger some work).
0.509 billion.
Some of these people will already have been counted as shanty town dwellers, but let’s be
generous and include them all. Add these to the shanty town dwellers and we get:
1,728,004,213.
Let’s say 1.8 billion. Let’s assume I’m missing a whole bunch of people without addresses
somewhere and you want a more digestible number – let’s make it 2 billion. We’re being
generous.
It’s still not 4 billion.
9
Let’s work the other way. If I start with the world’s population and start subtracting the
populations of countries which I know have full street address systems, it takes no time at all to
get well below that 4 billion mark even excluding the one sixth in some countries we assume
live in shanties without addresses.
Yes, I approve heartily of the campaigns to provide addressing for everyone. Read some of
the marketing material of companies creating universal geospatial coding systems, and you’d
believe that we all have an address already. But I am absolutely not a fan of these coding
systems – people require a human readable and understandable street address, not a code.
Let’s get everybody an address, but let’s work on the basis of accurate numbers. Let’s get rid of
this 4 billion myth once and for all. 2 billion I can live with, and it’s more than enough to
warrant our efforts to work towards an address for everybody.
Graham Rhind
WHEN IS A POSTCODE NOT A POSTCODE?
WHEN IT’S AN EIRCODE.
There is a good reason the new Irish
“building identification code” (GADA’s term) is
not referred to by its designer as either
“address” or “postcode” but as an “Eircode’. The new system is not even intended to be a
“postcode system”, if by this we mean the building identification system used for mail delivery.
In fact, An Post has said they will not use the code for deliveries. So although it’s not a postcode
system, it is another line in the Irish addressing system, and it attracts our interest. What does
it do, and does it make life easier?
Not a postcode system
The Eircode is most definitely not a postcode system
as most posts and postal customers envision such
systems. One important specification for the project
makes this clear, and makes it puzzling, in fact. This is
that “it will not require change to the current postal
addresses and addresses shall not need to be numbered
or streets named where currently this is not the case”.
We repeat, most definitely for emphasis: No street will be named or sequential street
addresses generated in making this code system.
So, no street names, and buildings won’t have sequential street numbers. How very curious. But in
fact it makes sense in a country where the urban bits, at least, tend to have street names and numbers
already, to which people are accustomed. And we use “tend” intentionally. In the countryside, as many
10
lost foreign visitors will attest, buildings tend not to have addresses, road signs are puzzling or non‐
existent, and sometimes the entire village will have one address. Such a “shared address” is referred to
as “non‐unique”, and somewhere near 35% of the addresses in Ireland are non‐unique and represent
more than one building/residence!
Structure and content for the Post
This we learned from an interview with Liam Duggan, Business Development Director of
the code’s development at Capita, the winning bidder of the government tender to introduce
and maintain the Eircode. Capita is a major government services outsource provider with
headquarters in London, England. Liam generously agreed to meet us at their offices in Dublin,
Ireland on June 11.
Liam explained that an Eircode consists of two parts. Suppose your house’s code is A65
R2GF. The first 3 character bit is a “routing key” while the second 4 letters and numbers is a
“unique identifier”. The routing key is meant to generally identify a geographic area, one of
delivery/sortation functionality for the Post. It is apparently not as strictly a defined area as an
American “Zipcode”, a system which is quite “determinate” geographically and functionally.
Rather, when a new building is constructed, An Post will decide what “key” it belongs to
depending on the shape of their postal delivery routes in that area. And with that decision, An
Post exits the story of this “postcode”.
Houses bearing this key are
delivered from the same delivery
office or sortation center from
which the postmen begin their
“walks”. However, the official
website says, “The routing key will
be used to help sort mail, however it is not directly linked to counties, towns and geographic
features.” How very puzzling. There are some 137 of these routing keys, each of which
stretches across 200 sq miles on average. That would certainly seem to be pretty clearly postal,
and geographic, but it is not. One of the keys, the Limerick area, contains an enormous number
of houses – 86,000. By any stretch, that’s a couple of sort centers.
The unique address “bit”
Now, turning to the second part of an Eircode, in this case R2GF, we confront what makes
this code a puzzle on a number of levels, as well as very strange in one respect, and a wonderful
advance, in another.
The last four “bits” of the code identify a building in which there are people or businesses
who receive mail. This is called a “unique identifier”. Every building will have one. As noted
above, this is not a minor advance for Ireland, since something like 35% of the ‘traditional’
addresses now in use are “non‐unique”, which is to say they reference more than one building.
11
It is not unknown for an entire village of 12 or 13 houses to have one address. With the
issuance of the new codes, every inhabited building will have its own unique identifier.
And on top of that every apartment/living unit will have a “unique identifier”.
On one hand, this latter point is a very nice advance. No need to write “Apt. 74” when you
send your cousin a birthday card. B83 G6M4 specifically refers to his 7th floor flat. On the other
hand, this is something no signage anywhere will disclose, unless the building management
decides to “translate” the apartment designations. This would look something like “B83 G6M4
= Apt. 74, 7th floor”.
And the problems are…
Recall that the specifications required that there be no
“sequential” numbering. Recall that your address is A65 R2GF, with
R2GF being your house’s “number”. But none of your nearby
neighbors will be R3GF or RDGG or anything else that could appear
to the viewer to be considered “contiguous” or “sequential”.
Similarly in the apartment building. These “addresses”, including
yours, will appear to be random. Which is why they are not called
“addresses”, but “unique identifiers”.
So, Ireland ends up with something that can’t really be called a postcode system, except in
part for the first bit. The second bit appears to be a system for random scattering of unrelated
letters and numbers, which aren’t even posted on buildings.
Sadly, it appears there were no address experts involved in the final design process. One is
reminded of the old adage about a camel being a horse designed by a legislative committee.
The launch is imminent
Liam informed us that the codes have been allocated and letters will be sent to every
coded address in Ireland in July to inform the householder or business of their new
address/unique identifier. This mailing will consist of 2.2 million letters and is being managed
by An Post. There is an information website worth visiting: https://www.eircode.ie/.
The mailing will serve both unique and non‐unique addresses. Recall that current “unique”
addresses apply to one building or apartment, so these will be windowed letters with the new
“address” displayed. These will not bear the home/apartment owner’s name, which An Post
does not possess. To communicate with the currently non‐unique addresses, the envelopes will
be closed since the letter will contain the name of the resident and a description of the
building, this being necessary to assure delivery to the right building. .
Going forward, aside from the first part of the code, it appears An Post personnel won’t
use the new codes for delivery, or for anything else, for that matter. They’ll still rely on “local
knowledge”. In fact, the talk in Dublin was that the postal union made it very clear that labor
12
would not support any system that they perceived would threaten their employment numbers,
and sequential numbering, publically displayed in a coherently named system of street signage
was perceived to be such a threat.
OK. It’s what we’ve got so let’s make do
There will be no street signage or consecutive numbering of buildings for this code, only
this unique identifier. This is not as terrible problem as one imagines since the street signage in
urban areas is fairly thorough, as is building numbering. And the Eircodes will NOT be placed on
buildings by the authorities. They will be virtual, until citizens take action.
If this is the system, I know that I would want the code visible on the house of my 86‐year
old aunt who insists on living alone where she has lived for 62 years. The likelihood of the need
for me to call the emergency services is high, and I want them to get it right the first time. And
when I call in her “code”, how do they find her? How do I find my cousin’s new apartment?
To learn your neighbor’s “code”, get the ambulance to your aunt, or find the location of
your cousin’s new apartment, you and the emergency services will have to consult the
database, in map form, created for this purpose. Although not yet live, the beta version I was
shown is a standard Google view with the “unique identifiers” printed on each building. This is
what everyone, including emergency services, will use to find my aunt. This is what you’ll look
for on your mobile when driving to your cousin’s new home. (This is what I’ll put outside on my
aunt’s house, just to be sure…)
And with a digital device or other Internet‐connected computerized tool, it should be an
easy matter to punch in the UI and get a view of the destination on the map. But, forget trying
to use a paper map, like the one tourists use or the
Automobile Club gives out. Those are unlikely to
be printed with Eircodes!
No free lunch or address
And forget free. You’ll have to have a digital
tool with the Codes loaded, or accessible. And
Google and Garmin and TomTom and all the
others in the commercial world will make this
available to you for a price. They will have to
charge because they will have to pay to access the Eircode database and fit its data into a
commercial product. You can see how much they’ll have to pay, and get back from the public,
here: https://www.eircode.ie/business/products‐and‐services
As long as there’s no blackout of the internet (or the digital location tool can run
independent of the internet, which is quite feasible), and everyone has easy (free?) access, the
“unique identifiers” will work to show us where our destination is.
13
But, even with the digital assist, as a route planning tool for those who need it – private
couriers, bus companies, school buses, delivery companies, An Post – it’s not functional.
Some public policy issues
As we approach the end of this discussion, we would suggest there is a pretty profound
public policy question raised by government’s choice of this postcode design (which I hesitate
to call a “postcode”) and how this system will be made public and be funded.
If an address is something required by all our institutions and by all people in their daily
lives, is it not a critical component of a civilized society and a healthy economy? And if it is a
critical component, why is there a charge to use it? Why is it not paid for out of general tax
revenues? And why will Unique Identifiers not be made publically visible?
We suspect that the adoption period for this code by the public will be long, hard, and
painful for civil society and politically. With the apparent usefulness for the citizen being, shall
we say, “opaque”, the likelihood of a widespread public yawn of rejection is quite possible.
Capita is aware of this and has created a contact center for information. It is also launching a
community outreach program. 26 “Eircode Champions” (one for each county) will hold
briefing sessions and be available for questions. They will pay particular attention to vulnerable
groups such as the elderly, non‐IT literate and those in remote locations.
Notwithstanding these efforts, there will be emergency response due to a mistaken, or a
misreading of it. People will make mistakes with providing the code to numerous institutions,
whose records will be incorrect ‐ government agencies, airlines, banks, department stores,
pharmacies….
Possibly better than anticipated, but…
On the other hand, once correctly captured into a business’s customer file it will serve to
distinguish clients with identical names. Much else in daily life that used to be haphazard will be
improved. And of course we can be sure that the Digital Generation will adapt to this system in
about 3 days.
Utilities, insurance companies, retailers, petrol companies, government planning
departments for locating hospitals and schools and other services, will use these “residential
identifiers” for planning purposes.
But, until the people who will be affected by this project get their “addresses” correct in
the records that make up their social, political, employment, health and working lives, which is
just about everyone, Ireland will be in for a messy adjustment period.
For a country that has been at this project for something like 10 years, we admit to being
puzzled and disappointed. No doubt, an expensive street name/signage/sequential numbering
solution would have been ideal. Short of that, given the incidence of “non‐uniques” and large
rural area, we feel that a coherent self‐explanatory geocode system that provided sequential
14
functionality for route planning and location identification would have been far more desirable.
In fact, Ireland would have been the first country in the world to install such a system.
But the choice was made, and is ready for implementation. Good luck, Ireland. You are
known for luck! Unfortunately, a fair amount of it has been bad….
Charles Prescott, Executive Director, Global Address Data Association
UPDATE ON THE UPU GLOBAL ADDRESSING CONFERENCE PREPARATIONS
The dates for this first global addressing conference are Monday and Tuesday, October
26 and 27 at the UPU headquarters in Berne, Switzerland. There will be pre‐conference
registration available. The program is still under development but is progressing very well.
The first round of judging the entries to the Addressing Challenges has been completed.
For the second stage of the competition, the authors of the 12 most promising proposals have
been invited to submit a full paper.
The UPU has published synopses of these 12 finalist proposals, and their authors will
receive a recognition award. To view them, go to
http://www.upu.int/fileadmin/documentsFiles/activities/addressingAssistance/promisingPropo
salsEn.pdf
Three finalists will be selected out of the 12 participants in the second round. They will
be notified by the end of July 2015 and invited to present their solutions during the 2015 Global
Addressing Conference.
To keep abreast of developments, please bookmark
http://www.upu.int/en/activities/addressing/global‐addressing‐conference.html. And follow
progress through our newsletter and on the website.
Last Thoughts Point to the Future – From the Executive Director
We had hoped to include in this issue: India’s Unique Identity Project (UID)‐Aadhaar,
The Promise of a permanent change in benefits transfers, and so much else… By Chetan
Sharma – CEO & Founder, Datamation Group.
Unfortunately, it is too long for this newsletter. Please download this excellent article
about the project which is giving every resident of India an identity card:
http://www.globaladdress.org/. Mind you, the card is perhaps one of the most secure identity
cards in the world, relying as it does on a scan of the iris in one’s eye, which is said to be more
lasting than fingerprints and apparently more complex and thus more “unique” than
fingerprints.
15
But it’s not an address, is it? Correct, but in many cases is not the address used as a
form of identity proof? In fact, the address is even used to differentiate people with same or
similar names. It short, it’s used as if it were a form of identity.
Now, the need for identity proofing is a core need of any government, and for the
citizens. When I go to vote, my recitation of my address and my name are all I need to cast my
vote for those I am entrusting to run our government. This reference to India’s UIP is not an
accident, because it represents the increasing breadth of the mission of GADA. We have
become increasingly aware that the subject of the address is intimately connected to the
subject of individual identities, which in turn is intimately connected to human, civil, and
political rights of individuals.
The residents of Chetla are obtaining addresses through their Go Code, of course. But
by virtue of its uniqueness, they are also obtaining identities. The enormity of this event,
which leads to so many opportunities for these people was brought home to me by the debate
in Ireland over the benefits and risks implicit in the Eircode.
The new Eircode is not really a post code, since it can’t be used as a delivery point
location or routing tool. The “addresses” aren’t sequential. Each “unique identifier” is in fact
unique to that residence, including apartments. Houses in the country which used to share the
same “address” will now have unique identifiers, for the first time. And An Post isn’t going to
use it to deliver mail since they claim to be content with their current system.
But the reception of this system has been very cool. Concerns were raised by privacy
advocates that privacy is lost where there is only one person in an apartment or house.
In fact, with every building and apartment being numbered, the Eircode, put in Indian
terms, really is your iris, totally unique! There is only one Eircode like the one on your
apartment, and you are it! The new Data Protection Commissioner has brushed this aside,
quite rightly I feel. What kind of personal data is
data you can move away from? And what difference
does it make if there is a family of five, or one
person only? Shall we abandon the idea of
addresses and go without because of these
concerns? Definitely not, for the sake of society.
But, but…my address is MY address, and that of my
family. It is personal data, shouldn’t I be able to keep
it to myself and shouldn’t others have to ask
permission to use it? But, society needs your
address for lots of purposes you might not like, but
are essential to society, such as crime control and
taxation. Puzzling, and important, questions, those.
16
So the Global Address Data Association most definitely involves the study, debate and
advocacy of development of addressing systems, and the study and debate and development of
identity proofing tools. They are inextricably connected. Going forward, look for this interplay
to be more intensely studied and debated.
Charles Prescott, Executive Director