According to the UN, billions of people still live without an address.
根据联合国的资料，有数十亿人的住所是没有地址的。
The economist Hernando de Soto said, "Without an address, you live outside the law. You might as well not exist."
经济学家埃尔南多·德·索托说过：“若你没有地址，你就是住在法律之外，那和不存在没有两样。”
I'm here to tell you how my team and I are trying to change that.
我来此告诉各位，我和我的团队在试图改变这点。
If you go to an online map and look at a favela in Brazil or a township in South Africa,
如果你去看在线地图，去找巴西的一个贫民区，或是南非的一个镇，
you'll see a few streets but a lot of empty space.
你会看到少数几条街和非常多的空地。
But if you flip to satellite view,
但如果你切换到卫星画面，
there are thousands of people, homes and businesses in this vast, unmapped and unaddressed spaces.
其实有数以千计的人、住所及企业，在那没有被画上地图、也没有地址的广大空间里。
In Ghana's capital, Accra, there are numbers and letters scrawled onto the sides of walls,
在加纳的首都阿克拉，有数字和字母被潦草地写在墙边，
where they piloted address systems but not finished them.
他们开始尝试地址系统，但并没完成。
But these places, these unaddressed places, hold huge economic potential.
但这些地方，这些没有地址的地方，有着很大的经济潜力。
Here's why the issue of addressing stuck with me.
我之所以这么执着于地址议题，
I worked in the music business for 10 years,
是因为我在音乐界工作了十年，
and what you may not know about the music world is that every day, people struggle with the problems of addressing.
你们可能不知道，在音乐世界里，每天，人们都会被地址问题所困。
So from the musicians who have to find the gigs to the production companies who bring the equipment,
音乐家得要找到表演的场子，制作公司要带来器材，
everyone somehow always gets lost. We even had to add someone to our schedules
大家似乎总会有办法迷路。我们甚至得在计划表中加上一个人，
who was the person you called when you thought you'd arrived but then realized you hadn't.
这个人是你认为你到达了但接着发现其实没有时，就打电话求救的人。
And we had some pretty bad days, like in Italy, where a truck driver unloaded all the equipment an hour north of Rome,
我们有些相当糟的日子，在意大利，一个卡车司机把所有的装备都卸在了距罗马一小时的北部地区，
not an hour south of Rome, and a slightly worse day where a keyboard player called me and said,
而非距罗马一小时的南部地区，还有更糟一点的日子，一个键盘手打电话给我，说：
"Chris, don't panic, but we may have just sound-checked at the wrong people's wedding."
“克里斯，别慌，但我们刚做的声音测试，可能误做到别人的婚礼了。”
So not long after the fated Rome event, I chatted this through with a friend of mine who is a mathematician,
所以，在不幸的罗马事件之后没多久，我和一位朋友聊到此事，他是个数学家，
and we thought it was a problem we could do something about.
我们认为这是个问题，且我们能做点什么。
We thought, well, we could make a new system, but it shouldn't look like the old system.
我们认为，我们可以做个新的系统，但它应该要和旧系统不一样。
We agreed that addresses were bad.
我们都同意，地址不好用。
We knew we wanted something very precise, but GPS coordinates, latitude and longitude, were just too complicated.
我们知道我们想要高精确度。但GPS坐标、经纬度，这些都太复杂了。
So we divided the world into three-meter squares.
所以我们把世界切割成三公尺的方块。
The world divides into around 57 trillion three-meter squares,
世界被切成57兆个三公尺方块，
and we found that there are enough combinations of three dictionary words
我们发现，用字典中的三个字，就能创造出足够的组合，
that we could name every three-meter square in the world uniquely with just three words.
来给予世界上每个三公尺方块一个独一无二的名称，只要三个字。

We used 40,000 words, so that's 40,000 cubed, 64 trillion combinations of three words,
我们用了四万个字，那就是四万的三次方，三个字就有64兆个组合，
which is more than enough for the 57-trillion-odd three-meter squares, with a few spare.
对于57兆个三公尺方块来说是绰绰有余了，还有可以备用的。
So that's exactly what we did.
所以我们就这么做了。
We divided the world into three-meter squares, gave each one a unique, three-word identifier -- what we call a three-word address.
我们把世界切割成三公尺的方块，给每个方块一个由三个字组成的标识符，我们称之为“三字地址”。
So for example, right here, I'm standing at mustards.coupons.pinup,
比如，在这里，我现在站在“芥末·折价券·钉饰”上，
but over here ... I'm standing at pinched.singularly.tutorial.
但到这里...我就站在“拧捏·奇特·教程”上。
But we haven't just done this in English.
但我们并不只有用英文来做。
We thought it was essential that people should be able to use this system in their own language.
我们认为重要的是要让人们能用自己的语言来使用这个系统。
So far, we've built it into 14 languages, including French, Swahili and Arabic,
目前，我们已经建立了十四种语言，包括法文、斯华西里语、阿拉伯文，
and we're working on more now, like Xhosa, Zulu and Hindi.
我们还在努力做更多，如科萨语、祖鲁语、北印度语。
But this idea can do a lot more than just get my musicians to their gigs on time.
但这个点子还有更多其他用处，不只是能让我的音乐家准时到表演的场子。
If the 75 percent of countries that struggle with reliable addressing started using three-word addresses,
如果75%苦于没有可靠地址可用的国家开始使用“三字地址”，
there's a stack of far more important applications.
那会有非常多更重要的应用。
In Durban, South Africa, an NGO called Gateway Health have distributed 11,000 three-word address signs to their community,
在南非的德尔班，有个非政府组织叫做“健康入口”，已经分发了11000个“三字地址”标志到他们的小区中，
so the pregnant mothers, when they go into labor,
这么一来，当怀孕的母亲开始临盆阵痛时，
can call the emergency services and tell them exactly where to pick them up from,
能打紧急求救电话，并告知他们应来的正确地点，
because otherwise, the ambulances have often taken hours to find them.
因为若不这么做，救护车需要花几小时才找得到他们。
In Mongolia, the National Post Service have adopted the system
在蒙古，国家邮政服务采用了这个系统，
and are now doing deliveries to many people's houses for the first time.
现在能送信到许多从来没有收过信的人家。
The UN are using it to geotag photos in disaster zones so they can deliver aid to exactly the right place.
联合国用它来标记灾区照片的地理位置，这样就能把援助准确送达。
Even Domino's Pizza are using it in the Caribbean, because they haven't been able to find customers' homes,
甚至达美乐比萨也在加勒比海使用这个系统，因为他们找不到客人的家，
but they really want to get their pizza to them while its still hot.
但他们真的想把比萨热腾腾地送到客人手上。
Shortly, you'll be able to get into a car, speak the three words, and the car will navigate you to that exact spot.
简言之，你可以进到一辆车里面，说出三个字，那辆车就会把你载到正确的地点。
In Africa, the continent has leapfrogged phone lines to go to mobile phones,
非洲大陆跳过了有线电话，直接使用移动电话，
bypassed traditional banks to go straight to mobile payments.
越过了传统银行，直接用行动支付。
We're really proud that the post services of three African countries -- Nigeria, Djibouti and Cote d'Ivoire,
有三个非洲国家的邮政服务让我们很骄傲：尼日利亚、吉布提、科特迪瓦，
have gone straight to adopting three-word addresses,
也直接采用了“三字地址”，
which means that people in those countries have a really simple way to explain where they live, today.
这就意味着，在这些国家的人民可以用很简单的方式说出他们现在住在哪里。
For me, poor addressing was an annoying frustration, but for billions of people,
对我来说，编得很差的地址是种很恼人的挫折，但对数十亿人而言，
it's a huge business inefficiency, severely hampers their infrastructure growth, and can cost lives.
它会使商业非常没效率，严重妨碍了他们的基础建设成长，还可能让人丧命。
We're on a mission to change that, three words at a time. Thank you.
我们的使命就是去改变它，一次三个字。谢谢。