Service d'address mondial
service d'address mondial (French for worldwide address service ), abbreviation: sedamo , is an internet-based service for exchanging postal addresses, especially in non-Latin script (such as Chinese , Japanese or Korean ). Each postal address is given a unique 8-letter code, the sedamo address code, which can be used to look up the original address in local script.
background
In particular, the residents of Asia face the problem that z. E.g. Europeans and Americans often cannot write the address in their native language. Although workarounds exist (such as writing the address in Latin transcription), these are error-prone and slow down mail delivery for two reasons:
(1) A Latin transcription of Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc. contains ambiguities; a romanized address cannot be translated back into the original language.
(2) The postman at the destination is not used to reading addresses in a foreign (Latin) alphabet. (Compare the situation of a German postman who was supposed to decipher an address written in Chinese transliteration.)
The service d'address mondial enables the exchange of correctly written and formatted addresses in a simple way: The address can be displayed on the sedamo website as an image ( bitmap ) and printed directly on an envelope or label. The sender does not need to install any special software or foreign character sets for this.
The service d'address mondial is operated by the Cross-Cultural Communication Club (CCCC), a charity registered in London (Great Britain). The use of sedamo is free; the operating costs are covered by donations.
use
In the first letter, the recipient looks up the sedamo address code for his own address. He sends this code to the sender .
In the second step, the sender uses this code to print out the foreign address in an international format (as recommended by the Universal Postal Union ). The sedamo system also generates a transcribed form of the address. This Latin transcription can be used for express delivery companies that only accept addresses in Latin script.
The sedamo address code
The sedamo address code consists of eight letters, for example CT-QP-ED-TP (this is the code for the hall of harvest prayer within the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, People's Republic of China). The hyphens are used only for better readability and can be omitted. The code consists of the Latin letters except “I” (which could be confused with “1”), N (similar to “M”), “O” (“0”), “S” (“5”), “V” ”(“ U ”or“ W ”) and“ Z ”(“ 2 ”). The code includes a check digit ; simple errors like a single wrong letter or swapping two letters does not lead to a wrong address, but to an error message. Neighboring addresses are also given very different codes to avoid confusion.
A double arrow is used to distinguish the sender and recipient code: AA-AA-AA-AA >> CT-QP-ED-TP. For the purpose of automating the CCCC recommends the pressure as Code39 - Barcode with a "% +" ( percent sign and plus sign ) in front of the receiver code and a "% -" (percent and minus sign ) before the sender code without using hyphens . For the above example: *% - AAAAAAAA% + CTQPEDTP * or *% + CTQPEDTP% -AAAAAAAA *
sedamo-based services
- eMail2address
The website eMail2address.com allows you to link your own e-mail address with the sedamo address code. After registration, the e-mail address (electronic address) can be used to find the sedamo address code (and thus the postal / physical address).
- sedamo-based software
The Cross-Cultural Communication Club (CCCC), the operator of sedamo , licenses the sedamo technology to software developers for access to the sedamo database. This software can be used to look up addresses and print out address labels and parcel labels. Access to the sedamo database is regulated by means of a user name, password and transaction numbers, which are provided by the software developer who licensed the sedamo technology, not by the CCCC itself.
Usage examples
sedamo address codes are used in the book "ChinaBridgeBUSINESS", a trilingual investment guide for China and Europe: The addresses of offices, trade associations, etc. are only given in Latin transcription, and the reader can call up the natural address as described above.
The “ChinaBridgeMOBILE” app enables the user to save addresses on his smartphone using a sedamo code and display them offline if necessary , e.g. B. when communicating with the taxi driver. This helps when traveling individually without knowing the national language.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Technical Documentation of the service d'address mondial, sedamo version: 1, document version: 15. published by: Cross-Cultural Communication Club, Ltd., London, UK. (PDF file: http://sedamo.info/static/sedamo_technical_documentation.pdf )
- ↑ ChinaBridgeBUSINESS, DAIBOLA Trade Ltd, ISBN 9780956324023
- ↑ ChinaBridgeMOBILE, DAIBOLA Trade Ltd, http://daibola.biz/daibola_chinabridgemobile.de.php