Let us address the addressing issues of addresses (repost)

A semi  weekly blog of interesting things I discover and observe on secondment to Land Information New Zealand, and other random stuff. - Somehow I deleted the original.

Addresses do not exist, its a myth.

Yes but!

No. Addresses do not physically exist. Take a breath.I’ve never seen such "enthusiastic frustration" as I have this week. My mind is a mass of static electricity just thinking about it. Trying to pull it all together into a single stream of consciousness is a real challenge. I’ll give it a crack, albeit a confused one.

This is relevant to discussions about how people use addresses and why businesses, organisations and agencies may not always ask the right questions when asking for and using addresses supplied by their customers. Street address, Delivery address, Postal address, Billing address, Home or Work address? Ah? Yeah not so simple young skywalker. 

One issue is the purpose that people are placing on address. That’s purpose from uniquely different perspectives… the customer supplying the address supplies it for a perceived purpose, and the organisation asking for the address asks for it to meet a perceived business need. And the two purposes do not always match up… with resultant problems.

Do businesses even need a physical address if they never send me anything? Data quality issues aside, the problem is not the actual address itself… the problem can also be confusion about how the address is being used.

An example that is often used to demonstrate the issues of addresses, was during search and rescue operations after the Christchurch earthquake, a building was cleared multiple times due to having 3 or more street frontages, and 3 or more street addresses associated with it. NZ Post, Corelogic, Critchlows, E-spatial, LINZ, councils, and other parties are sources for address information and services, but there is no single combined view (anyone else?) yet. There are alternatives, check out the video below.

Take that breath now, sip that coffee. Your brain may hurt a little after this.

The Oxford Dictionary definition of an address is:

“the particulars of a place where someone lives or an organisation is situated”, or “a place where someone lives or is situated”, or an email address, a binary computer address, or a formal speech delivered to an audience".

Oxford, you’re doing it wrong. People don't generally live in cowsheds or transformer stations, but cowsheds and transformer stations can have an address.

The most complex ISO image I could find.

Here’s the ISO 19160 definition of address: 

“structured information that allows the unambiguous determination of an object for purposes of identification and location”

I think ISO provides a better definition than the Oxford dictionary one, but it is property-centric and misses the people-use aspect, but it takes a fair amount of study to come to terms with if you can afford to buy it. If you do manage to find a copy, I wish you the best of luck in your efforts to conform with the ISO normative references in the pathological ontology of the conceptual model INSPIRED by the thematic working groups’ relative cross-map specification to the referenced object.

Does that make sense?  No, it shouldn't.  

 Shut up and tell me what the address is then!

 You shall not get away that easily. As I have suffered, then so shall you.

Is a person the address? No. What are you talking about. 

Is a letterbox an address? No, it’s a letterbox. I don’t live in the letterbox, and there can be many letterboxes lined up in a row in flats or rural areas. But, a letterbox can be addressed. For instance in a rural area you can’t take mail delivery without a letterbox, so it can be assigned a rural delivery address, and that may differ from the council allocated one.

Is the house an address? No, it’s a building. Yes, I live in the building which is located on a parcel of land.

Is a building an address? No, it’s a structure, I work in Radio NZ “House”, but it's not the address, it's located 41°17'06.8"S 174°46'28.4"E.

What? The people cry!
“What am I supposed to do with that you stupid geogeek Duane? I’m not Jithen Singh with a built in Esri ArcGIS iMap ... iDevice GPS chip, I can’t even type that into my computer without a frickin 1960s  base 60 math book. “  

Is a parcel the address? No, its a surveyed area of land that can have rights and responsibilities applied to it, usually a Title. 

Is the Title the address? No, a title confers rights and responsibilities. Titles are related to Properties.

Is the Property the Address? No, but a Property can be referenced by an address. A property can be made up of more than one title. In Real Estate, a property is a related collection of Parcels, Titles, located which can be located at an address.

Breathe.

In the Property Data Management Framework (PDMF) a property is “defined areas of land with any improvements that acts as a single tradable space for the purposes of occupation”.

Is an address a single point? No. I say it's the textual description of a feature that humans can interpret to find a location. It could be represented as a point, and that point might be within the title polygon, but if I had to stick a peg in the garden lawn or carpet where would I put it?

An address doesn't exist.

WHAT!?! Ok so go outside and show me an address point. We can see things that have been addressed but I can’t find an address point. Yes but, I’d probably pick the front lawn. I don't live there. I mow it, so now I mow the address.  

No, do not question my logic.My logic is unquestionable. I live, or I work at a place that is referenced by an address.

All is not lost.There is a fair bit of work underway I am aware of to resolve some of the issues, these are the top three that come to mind.

Integrated Property Services will improve the information people have access to when making property decisions  such as buying, selling, building, developing and maintaining property.The Property Data Management Framework looks at The Property Data Management Framework (PDMF) project looked at how agencies could connect property information to make rebuilding as easy as possible. It solves long-standing issues concerning inconsistencies between building footprints, addresses, land parcels, rating units, and ownership data, which are affecting the recovery.

The Address Information Management System (AIMS) will lead to improved processes for maintaining addresses and better data for emergency services, people making deliveries and others who rely on accurate addressing.Statistics NZ are also putting in a lot of effort to support their work for the next Census.

And the masses shout: “We should all use Google Maps then it wouldn't be a problem”!

Yes, it would be a big problem. Google will locate an address that does not exist."We should all use Bing Maps then it wouldnt be a problem"!

Yes it would, half the time I cant find anything.Confused? You should be. I am.

It seems simple, but it's complicated. If it was simple someone would have sorted it. Every time I dream up another easy blanket solution, 500,000 exceptions to that rule are needed. Just  fix it already!

YUSSAH! OK! What should I do first, Format c: ?  Start over? What? Ready to receive your instruction.

Big thanks to Mike Judd on helping me understand what on earth I am talking about.Alternatively, we could use the Japanese System if you like. 

These incomplete,  often incomprehensible, and questionable  postings on social media are my own and do not represent the postings, strategies or opinions of the NZ Government, LINZ or DOC.