OGLAP is a deterministic, offline-first digital addressing system. Unlike abstract global grids, every code is hierarchically embedded in a country's real administrative structure (from national borders down to the quartier) and resolves to sub-metre precision without a single network request.
The absence of standardized addressing is not a logistical inconvenience: it is a structural barrier to public services, emergency response, financial inclusion, and the digital economy. The deficit is concentrated precisely where connectivity is weakest.
OGLAP departs from the tradition of geocoding-as-abstraction. Accessibility and institutional fit are not features bolted on afterward: they are embedded in the structure of every code.
Codes embed the real jurisdiction (country, region, locality, sub-locality) directly in the structure. A postal worker reads the code and immediately knows where it falls. Sorting and aggregation become mechanical.
Once three config files load into local storage, all encoding and decoding run on-device. No API to query, no server to authenticate, no cloud to throttle. Identical coordinates produce identical codes, on any device, at any time.
Each segment is short and heterogeneous (letters, letter-digit mixes, pure digits), giving visual distinctiveness that aids recall and transcription for populations with basic literacy and numeracy.
Released under MIT with attribution. No entity can enclose the protocol. Governments deploy, audit, modify, and govern it with no licensing fees, vendor lock-in, or commercial dependency.
The encoding engine is stateless with respect to country knowledge. To deploy in a new jurisdiction you prepare three JSON configuration files conforming to the documented schema; the engine itself never changes.
OGLAP decouples machine precision from human usability without trading one for the other. The same location yields a fully-structured code and a natural, locally-meaningful address.
All country knowledge is externalized into three JSON files: the centralized source of truth for any deployment. A validation pre-flight checks schema, bounds, and version compatibility before any state is applied.
Grid parameters, cell sizes, letter mappings, administrative resolution rules, zone naming conventions, country extent & CRS, version compatibility ranges.
GeoJSON geometries for every administrative division with pre-computed zone codes, place identifiers, and parent-child hierarchy. Sourced from authoritative boundaries.
Complete geospatial reference dataset: place records, structured address objects, OSM metadata, bounding boxes. The spatial lookup corpus for reverse geocoding.
| Dimension | What3Words | Plus Codes | OGLAP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licensing | Proprietary, patented | Open (Apache 2.0) | MIT + Attribution |
| Offline capability | Recently added | Full | Full · 3 config files |
| Code format | ///three.dictionary.words | 6CX8MC66+3Q4 | GN-CON-QYTC-B0B1-2282 |
| Spatial precision | 3 m × 3 m | ~3.5 m max | 1 m × 1 m microspot |
| Spatial intuition | Low | Low | High · hierarchical |
| Administrative context | None | None | Full hierarchy |
| Gov. adoption readiness | Proprietary dependency | Abstract, non-territorial | Designed for institutions |
| Data sovereignty | Commercial servers | Tied to Google Maps | Fully sovereign & local |
An estimated four billion people worldwide live without a formal street address, a deficit concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and informal urban settlements. It is a fundamental barrier to public services, economic participation, emergency response, and financial inclusion.
Two systems have emerged to remedy this gap: What3Words, a proprietary three-word scheme, and Google Plus Codes, an open alphanumeric geocoder. Neither has proven adequate for developing nations characterized by low literacy, unreliable connectivity, and fragmented administrative hierarchies.
OGLAP proposes a fundamentally different premise: anchoring geocodes within the existing administrative and territorial structure of the country in which they operate. At its heart is a dual-format model that decouples machine precision from human usability: a full hierarchical code such as GN-CON-QYTC-B0B1-2282 for systems, and a derived human address, B0B1-2282 Yattaya Fossedè, Conakry, Guinea, for people. The protocol is country-agnostic in specification yet country-specific in deployment, operating entirely offline with zero dependency on external APIs.
The full technical white paper, reference SDKs in JavaScript, Python & Dart, and an interactive playground are all openly available.