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A friend of mine who distributes consumer goods in Congo (yes, the whole of Congo) through an online shop explained that a phone call is an essential part of th
by liotier 9y ago
A friend of mine who distributes consumer goods in Congo (yes, the whole of Congo) through an online shop explained that a phone call is an essential part of the delivery process - even more important than the address because it is how the actual delivery location is negotiated.
Of course, this is only a problem for valuable items (one wouldn't trust postal employees with that) - regular mail in Africa ends in a PO box.
Expecting customers to be map-literate or adopt whichever fancy geographic coordinates keywords landgrab of the month is a bit hopeful and far removed from logistical realities.
- jrcii 9y agoDo you mean Congo Kinshasa or Brazzaville? I spent time in DRC and this wasn't true there. DHL used street addresses. I wouldn't want this stereotype perpetuated that Congo is some kind of chaos-land, as it's always portrayed in western media.
- noobermin 9y agoHow about google map pins? Would that help?
- liotier 9y agoFrom being an Openstreetmap evangelist and trainer, I can tell you that most people in the world (not an Africa-specific thing) have close to no idea how to position themselves on a map... Which by the way is why turn-by-turn navigation is so popular.
- noobermin 9y agoFWIW, if people can learn to use a cellphone and order things online, they can learn to pin themselves. Regardless, I understand and agree with your point. I just think difficulty with pinning on maps[0] limits its adoption vs. actually eliminating it. [0] reasoning about maps in general is difficult for many people, not everyone has well-developed spatial reasoning.
- lhopki01 9y agoIt's not really expecting much. Most of Africa will be using phones for internet access not computer so they can just get the coordinates for that.