From: russell@alpha3.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Russell Schulz)
Newsgroups: can.domain
Subject: city tags: Postal Codes and CLLI codes
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 93 02:34:46 MST
Organization: Private System, Edmonton, AB, Canada
X-Newsreader: rusnews v0.99

first: postal codes:

@ualberta.t6g.ca (I'm not sure if _all_ departments are under T6G - what
about the UofT?) is not likely to become invalid, but if the post office
feels like it, it will happen.

I got a physical mail bounce for one of our wedding thank-you notes.  it
turned out the post office had arbitrarily, with no input from my cousin
in particular (I can't speak for the rest of the people affected):

  - completely rewritten the address (from a RR#, Spruce Grove to a numeric
    address, Willowsomething)
  - not decided to auto-forward the mail from the old address

I know we took a long time to get the notes out, but it was about 9 months
from initial invitation (which used the current-at-the-time address) to
thank-you (which used the same address and bounced).  this concerns me
just a tiny bit (since it was the first time I'd ever seen it) with the
proposal to use postal codes.  I know this exact scenario is unlikely
to happen to most people, let alone companies (it happened to my cousin's)
but it does happen - and not necessarily with a lot of warning, either.
I also don't know what the post office's view is on re-using PCodes.

[anecdote: my usage of `bounce' confused my cousin's secretary]

my postal code has changed twice since I started alpha3 - once when I
moved here when I got married, and the second time when I finally wised
up and got a postal box at the U - I've moved about five times in the
last eight years, all within Edmonton, and always to a different PCode.
(I think 4 of the times different in the first 3 chars)

second: standard city abbreviations:

I used to work at AGT.  each piece of major telecommunications equipment
has a 12-character code in the database to indicate where it is:
  eg. EDTNABHQ3107
      ^^^^         city abbreviation
          ^^       province abbreviation
            ^^     unique code for that building within that city
              ^^   floor number
                ^^ section on the floor, or room number

the point is, those first 6 characters were STANDARDIZED.  (actually, the
first 8 were).  they were called the `Common Language Location Indicator'
or something - they were not an Alberta-only venture, either.

I don't know exactly how many of these codes exist - I only had to deal
with a few hundred.  but people from whom I got this information complained
to me that the _total_ amount of information for Alberta (including the
building codes) was _huge_.  I know my home town of Barrhead (current
population 5000) has its own code.  and there's no Usenet site there that
I've ever heard of.  and the postal codes there have changed in the
past couple years, now that I think about it...

I will try to get ahold of the people I'm thinking of back at AGT early
this week and see what information I can provide.

but the prospect of eight-char, unique, STANDARDIZED-BY-TELECOM-CANADA,
rememberable^ city identifiers is enticing, yes?

^ eg - CLGR=Calgary, FTMM=Ft. McMurray, GDPR=Grande Prarie, VGVL=Veg*ville
  I don't know if I can spell them all correctly, but I always had a good
  chance with them codes.
-- 
Russell Schulz  russell@alpha3.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca  ersys!rschulz  Shad 86c
Newsgroups: can.domain