When I sign up to a web service, I don't want to faff around uploading an image to use as my avatar. I want that service to look at my email address or social-sign-in and automatically pick up my preferred graphic.

Here's how I see it working.

1. A user signs in to a service with the email address username@example.com
2. In a similar way to WebFinger, the service makes a request to:
   • example.com/.well-known/avatar?resource=acct:username@example.com
3. If the request's Accept header has a MIME type of image/*, then the server immediately returns an image.
4. If the request's Accept header has a MIME type of application/json, then the server can return a WebFinger-style document with "rel":"http://webfinger.net/rel/avatar" and, perhaps, a list of different images, formats, and sizes.

This makes it incredibly simple for people to use the same avatar everywhere.

It also means that if you're designing a service which publicly shows usernames, you can make avatars available without an expensive API call. For example, Twitter could make user's avatars available at: twitter.com/.well-known/avatars?resource=acct:edent

But what about...?

This is a sketch of an idea. I'd like to know if people think it is useful before I take it any further.

I don't think it breaches privacy - a user's image is public on all services anyway.

Users should still be given the option of changing their avatar if they want.

A service shouldn't expose the user's email address - they should proxy the image.

Anything else I should have thought of?

Updates

To stave off some common points raised.

• No this isn't like Gravatar. That works by being a 3rd party service and using the MD5 of your email address.
• No this isn't like Libravatar. See above.
• No this isn't like WebFinger. That only returns JSON.
• No this isn't like h-card. That requires a server to parse HTML in order to find an image.
• No this isn't like BIMI. That's expensive and only supports SVG.

W3W is a closed product. It is a for-profit company masquerading as an open standard. And that annoys me.

A brief primer.

• The world is a sphere.
• We can reference any point on the surface of Earth using two co-ordinates, Longitude and Latitude.
• Long/Lat are numbers. They can be as precise or as vague as needed.
• Humans can't remember long strings of numbers, and reading them out is difficult.

W3W aims to solve this. It splits the world into a grid, and gives every square a unique three-word phrase.

So the location 51.50799,-0.12803 becomes ///mile.crazy.shade

Brilliant, right?

No.

Here's all the problems I have with W3W.

It isn't open

The algorithm used to generate the words is proprietary. You are not allowed to see it. You cannot find out your location without asking W3W for permission.

If you want permission, you have to agree to some pretty long terms and conditions. And understand their privacy policy. Oh, and an API agreement. And then make sure you don't infringe their patents.

You cannot store locations. You have to let them analyse the locations you look up. Want to use more than 10,000 addresses? Contact them for prices!

It is the antithesis of open.

Cost

W3W refuses to publish their prices. You have to contact their sales team if you want to know what it will cost your organisation.

Open standards are free to use.

Earthquakes

When an earthquake struck Japan, street addresses didn't change but that their physical location did.

That is, a street address is still 42 Acacia Avenue - but the Longitude and Latitude has changed.

Perhaps you think this is an edge case? It isn't. Australia is drifting so fast that GPS can't keep up.

How does W3W deal with this? Their grid is static, so any tectonic activity means your W3W changes.

Internationalisation

Numbers are fairly universal. Lots of countries use 0-9. English words are not universal. How does W3W deal with this?

Is "cat.dog.goose" straight translated into French? No! Each language has its own word list.

There is no way to translate between languages. You have to beg W3W for permission for access to their API. They do not publish their word lists or the mappings between them.

So, if I want to tell a French speaker where ///mile.crazy.shade is, I have to use ///embouchure.adjuger.saladier

Loosely translated back as ///mouth.award.bowl an entirely different location!

You're not allowed to know what word lists W3W use. They take a paternalistic attitude to creating their lists - they know best. You cannot propose changes.

Anecdotally, their non-English word lists are confusing even for native speakers.

Cultural Respect

Numbers are (mostly) culturally neutral. Words are not. Is "mile.crazy.shade" a respectful name for a war memorial? How about ///tribes.hurt.stumpy for a temple?

How do you feel about ///weepy.lulls.emerge and ///grouchy.hormone.elevating both being at Auschwitz? Or ///klartext.bestückt.vermuten - "cleartext stocked suspect"?

This is a classic computer science problem. Every sufficiently long word list can eventually be recombined into a potentially offensive phrase.

Open Washing

W3W know that the majority of technical people are not fooled by their attempts to lock down addressing.

They include this paragraph to attempt to prove their openness:

If we, what3words ltd, are ever unable to maintain the what3words technology or make arrangements for it to be maintained by a third-party (with that third-party being willing to make this same commitment), then we will release our source code into the public domain. We will do this in such a way and with suitable licences and documentation to ensure that any and all users of what3words, whether they are individuals, businesses, charitable organisations, aid agencies, governments or anyone else can continue to rely on the what3words system.

I don't know how they propose to bind a successor organisation. They don't say what licences they will use. If they go bust, there's no guarantee they'll be legally able to release this code, nor may they have the time to do so.

There's nothing stopping W3W from releasing their algorithms now, subjecting them to scrutiny by the standards community. They could build up a community of experts to help improve the system, they could work with existing mapping efforts, they could help build a useful and open standard.

But they don't. They guard their secrets and actively promote their proprietary product in the hope it will become widely accepted and then they can engage in rent-seeking behaviour.

This is not a new argument

My mate Leigh wrote about this three years ago. Lots of people have criticised W3W.

Andy Allan @gravitystorm@gravitystorm.co.uk

@gravitystorm

.@what3words is bad technical idea, and ethically terrible too. But all VCs like patented economic rents so the juggernaut rolls on. #geomob

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But W3W have a great PR team - pushing press releases which are then reported as uncritical news.

The most recent press release contains a ludicrous example:

• Person dials the emergency services
• Person doesn't know their location
• Emergency services sends the person a link
• Person clicks on link, opens web page
• Web page geolocates user and displays their W3W location
• Person reads out their W3W phrase to the emergency services

Here's the thing... If the person's phone has a data connection - the web page can just send the geolocation directly back to the emergency services! No need to get a human to read it out, then another human to listen and type it in to a different system.

There is literally no need for W3W in this scenario. If you have a data connection, you can send your precise location without an intermediary.

What Next?

W3W succeeds because it has a superficially simple solution to a complex problems. It is a brilliant lesson in how marketing and PR can help a technologically inferior project look like it is a global open solution.

I'm not joking. Their branding firm says:

Edelman helped what3words frame their story to be compelling by tapping into human emotion. We also created a story for CEO Chris Sheldrick about how having an address can drive social transformation and business efficiency, securing profiling and speaker opportunities. Through paid social campaigns we re-targeted these stories, getting through to the decision makers that mattered most. We articulated their purpose narrative and refined their strategy to engage investors and excite the media.

It takes too much time to refute all their claims - but we must. Whenever you see people mentioning What3Words, politely remind them that it is not an open standard and should be avoided.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Your periodic reminder that W3W is a closed and proprietary system, with opaque licencing, hefty pricing, and poor internationalisation.
It does have a very good PR team though.

BBC News Technology

@BBCTech

Three-unique-words 'map' used to rescue mother and child bbc.in/2FBnJ5O

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Sadly, Hadley Beeman does not have a TARDIS (Well, as far as any of us can tell...). What she does have is an interesting new job for me. Take a deep breath, because it's a heck of a long title:

Senior Technology Advisor to the Chief Technology Advisor to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Sweet! So, what does a STAttCTAttSoSfHaSC do? Apart from scoring 25 points in Scrabble, obviously?

I'm going to help improve the health and social care system - within and beyond the NHS. Not all of it, and not necessarily the bits that you'll see, but some of the deep magick which runs the technology behind it.

My job will be to keep saying "Hey! Let's use internationally recognised, free and open standards. Y'know, rather than handing a single company a life-long monopoly."

I'll also occasionally point my Sonic Screwdriver at a bit of kit and say "If we reverse the polarity of the neutron flow, we may be able to replace this with Open Source Software."

This is akin to redesigning and replacing the engine of a plane, while it is in flight. Without losing altitude or causing the passengers any discomfort. While under attack from Weeping Angels.

If I'm lucky, the team will help set the course for the future of NHS technology. I'm not talking AI-powered iPhone apps to show you your polyps in virtual reality - I'm talking about your consultant being able to share data with your GP without resorting to SnapChat. Or fax.

Can we put user needs at the heart of technology standards decisions? Can we give Clinical Commissioning Groups the tools and frameworks they need to make smarter decisions about technology? Can we make things open and make things better?

There's only one way to find out...!

This is a temporary secondment. I'm grateful to the whole team at GDS for letting me go on this adventure. Much like the Meta-Crisis 10th Doctor (do keep up), this role has a limited lifespan. Looks like the 2019 season of "The Terence Eden Adventures" is going to be epic!

Allons-y, Alonso!

Yeah, yeah, so I only played a small part in the (no doubt) hideously complicated process - but I'm happy to take full credit :-)

Last year, the UK Government opened up a Standards Hub. They were actively soliciting for challenges that the UK Government could take on.

I was one of the first to respond.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

My suggestion for open formats in government has been published - standards.data.gov.uk/challenge/offe…

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You can read my modest proposal on the standards hub.

The crux of my proposal was this:

Each user - whether they work for the Government or are a citizen - has the right to read documents. A user should not be expected to purchase new equipment or install new software, just in order to read an official document.

I don't think that's too much to ask. You may buy a computer every 6 months - but there are plenty of citizens who only have access to a Windows 95 PC. Or a Nintendo Wii. Or an eReader. Or who don't have admin rights to install new software.

Many of these devices are perfectly serviceable - and all are guaranteed to read either PDF or HTML. Open standards means zero extra cost for the citizen.

Next Steps

Based on my suggestion, two challenges were created:

• Challenge: Viewing government documents
• Challenge: Sharing or collaborating with government documents

After several months of wrangling, the Government announced a solution to both of these challenges - Open document formats selected to meet user needs.

When departments have adopted these open standards:

• citizens, businesses and voluntary organisations will no longer need specialist software to open or work with government documents
• people working in government will be able to share and work with documents in the same format, reducing problems when they move between formats
• government organisations will be able to choose the most suitable and cost effective applications, knowing their documents will work for people inside and outside of government

The selected standards, which are compatible with commonly used document applications, are:

• PDF/A or HTML for viewing government documents
• Open Document Format (ODF) for sharing or collaborating on government documents

Cabinet Office and The Rt Hon Francis Maude MP

And, boom, just like that the open standard of ODF is mandated across government. In the future, you won't have to buy Microsoft Office just to read or respond to a government document. You won't need the latest and greatest computer, or cutting edge software.

Here's the thing. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't made my initial contribution. Perhaps someone else would have. The tide is turning away from the proprietary standards of the past and Governments around the world are embracing Open Standards.

But I did contribute. I did make my voice heard. And the world has changed a little bit for the better.

And now it's up to you. Find a challenge on the Government's website, contribute, engage, make your voice heard,

Huge thanks to Hadley Beeman for telling me about the Open Standards Challenge, and to Tracey Williams for keeping me informed of its progress. Much of real credit for this amazing achievement belongs to Linda Humphries for running the consultation, and to The Rt Hon Francis Maude MP for listening to such wise counsel.