Stream: geospatial

Topic: Open Location Code

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 15:00):

@Jan Range just mentioned this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Location_Code

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 15:02):

There's a "find your code" button at https://maps.google.com/pluscodes/

Jan Range (Apr 10 2025 at 20:07):

Would this be a good identifier for each hub? The good thing is that it enforces geo location and could be re-used for maps to display installations.

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 20:08):

For each installation?

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 20:08):

But what's the advantage over good old lat/long? :thinking:

Jan Range (Apr 10 2025 at 20:12):

I was considering using this approach for the DV-Hub ID you mentioned in the Python channel. Since it’s a single string, it could identify the installation, even if the installation’s name changes.

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 20:13):

Hmm, will installations ever move, though. Probably not.

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 20:14):

A search for "has a university ever moved" yields some results, I'm afraid. :sweat_smile:

Jan Range (Apr 10 2025 at 20:17):

Oh okay, I did not expect them to move :-D

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 20:17):

They're all in the US :rolling_eyes:

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 20:17):

We are a rootless people

Jan Range (Apr 10 2025 at 20:18):

How does a university move? :grinning:

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 20:18):

with difficulty

Jan Range (Apr 10 2025 at 20:24):

and patience, I guess :grinning:

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 20:33):

So you like that it's a single string like 9VGP+7J instead of a messy 42.377813,-71.114812 (and who knows how many significant digits to use).

Jan Range (Apr 10 2025 at 20:39):

I feel it qualifies more as an ID than concatenating lon/lat. But I have some doubts now as it is only valid under the assumption that installation stay at the same location and there are no two instances at the same location. I am not sure how common these cases are.

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 20:40):

DANS has a few installations. Datastations, I think they call them.

Jan Range (Apr 10 2025 at 20:41):

Okay, that would break it already. I think good old UUID or integer are the better choices then :grinning:

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 20:41):

still, good to know about this Open Location Code thing, though

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Apr 10 2025 at 20:41):

might come in handy some day

Jan Range (Apr 10 2025 at 20:42):

True, at least learnt something new :smile:

Last updated: Nov 01 2025 at 14:11 UTC