Global Addresses

Just twelve questions, maximum. That is all it should take to locate anyone, anywhere. What planet are you from?


 PERSON         \  ?
  DWELLING       \  ?
   WATCH GROUP    \  ?
    NEIGHBORHOOD   \  ?
     VILLAGE        \  ?
      COMMUNITY      \  ?
       TOWN           \  ?
        AREA ------------- URBAN or RURAL? (city or countryside?)
         REGION         \  ?
          NATION         \  ?
           CONTINENT      \  ?
            PLANET         \  ?

Most of these levels sound familiar but their common usage is sometimes vague. There are many other similar-sounding names for settlements of all sizes, but these twelve seem to fit the model the best. [Link to page with more on similar names and divisons...]

For example, one hears the Portland metro area but then Metro is called a regional government for that same area. The Levels section in the Overview page defines the uses of area and region.

The world is rich with variation, for example:

Some localities may have several cities making up their urban area - Minneapolis-St.Paul (the twin cities), Dallas-Ft.Worth, the Tri-Cities (in the Columbia Basin). These cities should consider them selves one metropolitan area, not two or three cities, and they do where possible with current laws, etc.
Some small town may consider itself as having a single community not two distinct ones, and therefore their address is shortened, those levels (town and community) are folded together. So don't worry if you can't come up with a name for a particular level.
and so on.

Abbreviation of Global Addresses

 PERSON         John Miller
  DWELLING       Time Haven
   WATCH GROUP    North End
    NEIGHBORHOOD   Boone's Ferry Road
     VILLAGE        Collins View
      COMMUNITY      Burlingame
       TOWN           Southwest
        AREA           Portland
         REGION         Pacific Northwest
          NATION         America
           CONTINENT      North America
            PLANET         Earth

The above address shows the hierarchical relationship in two dimensions. It can be written in 1-D. For example, within the USA, my current address could be written as

        JM/8959/N/BFR/CV/SW/PDX/PNW

8959 is an alias for the dwelling name, PDX is an alias for the area, and so on.

Mail sent within PNW region would not need PNW in the address, just the area, PDX in this example. Mail sent from within the village need have only the neighborhood, watchgroup, dwelling and person in the address (because of the way mail could be sorted).

This scheme also lends itself well to sorting goods to these addresses, and can be the attraction to an address when wandering the transportation landscape.

Exercise

Can you determine parts of your global address?

New World Model Home Page | dialectrix