Munich Orientation Convention in Windhoek             

                                                             Google mapplet

Windhoek has the option to be world's first city that has realized an international orientation standard, an idea from a Munichian inventor to simplify and harmonize worldwide all orientation means: signage, cartography, postal codes, navigation devices and verbal expressions. 

Within this city, it is (will be) possible to find any target with easy brain work, that means 

- without maps, - without names,
- without illogical numbers  - without arrows
- without floor marks  - without square grids 
- without colors - without compass or other navigation devices

Buildings, crossings, stop points, bridges etc. have logical addresses like

      Central Post Office    StatusQuo© Windhoek   m10 r4

      Spanish Embassy                                            m9 r8

      airport                                                             m6:10 r55

      Friedenau dam                                                m8:50 r375


which are easy to understand if you associate the city with a clock as follows:

An outstanding point as e. g. the Christians Church was (will be) defined as a pole m0

Around this pole, the horizon is divided in 12 "horizon hours"     

              m1  to  m12   

, whereas m12 points to north. 

This divides the city as a cake in 12 imaginary sectors. As an example, the sector m8 was marked.

The sectors are divided in horizon minutes. These are not angles but DISTANCES to the horizon hour, in steps of approx. one "block of houses" or 100 meters. 

    Example      m9:2           ( read   "emm 9 point 2"   or   "emm nine 2" ). 

This is a line situated in a distance of 2 x 100m from the horizon hour m9, which points to sunset.

The convention for horizon minutes is very simple:   

              the greater, the later.

Considering the distance to m0 as r = radius also in steps of blocks of houses, logical position codes for targets, buildings, crossings etc. come into existence, e. g. as shown on the picture: 

     crossing StatusQuo©   m8:3 r10

StatusQuo means "where you are". In simple words:

"r" is a numbering starting FROM m0

"m" is a north-direction-based numbering AROUND m0  

and this simple methode covers a gigantic market gap: 

      l o g i c a l   and easy understandable  p o s i t i o n   codes.

Natural Cartography©: 

a map with such a polar grid has innovative characteritics, see www.volksnav.com/map . Please be aware about the fact that if the target isn't on map, with the help of the logical position code it's possible to imagine where it is situated !! 

Interesting details: 

- the search grid contains quadrangules similar to the conventional ones. The picture above shows a white quadrangule with the dimensions 200m x 200m. The bended sides let know in which direction the urban pole is situated, even if the centre isn't on map. 

- the width of the sector is half the radius !! Example: m8:2 r4, m8:4 r8 etc..

- the middle of the sector is radius/4. Example: m8:2 r8

.

Signage:

StatusQuo© addresses will be integrated within the existing signage, see www.volksnav.com/lollipop, or be indicated on so-called Orientators©, the signage of the future.

Vertical Pointing©: additional to the position information, a round symbol called center or pole pointer will be placed on their periphery to allow to detect the direction m0  according to the following conventions: 

if the pointer is placed on top       (f12) m0 will be in front of you  (f12)
  on bottom    (f6)   behind      (f6)
  right hand    (f3)   right hand  (f3)

etc. Acc. to the same convention, a square symbol points to north = m12.  The picture reveils: m12 is behind, the pole is right hand 

            Orientator© 

 

Navigation / VolksNav©:

The local navigation with the help of such codes is called VolksNav©. As proceeded today with house numbers, VolksNav© is nothing else than the major/minor comparison between "r" and "m" values: 

Simply proceed according to 1 -2 -3 : 

1

Positioning

 

 

Turn your body until m0 will be BEHIND. In this position, 

ahead will be outwards
right hand " to later (clockwise)
left hand " to earlier

etc. 

Beginners have to turn physically, after some exercises anyone will be able to do this by his imagination power. In case you look at above shown Orientator©, you'd have to turn to left, correct? 

2

r-comparison

 

Ask yourself:         

must I move inwards or outwards? 

 ( = is the target radius greater or smaller than the actual one?)

3

m-comparison

 

Ask yourself:      

must I move to “later” (clockwise) or to earlier?  

( = is the target m later or earlier than the actual one?)

 

Let's see an example: 

Your target is:                  Roman Catholic hospital  m10 r8       

If you've lost orientation on named crossing      m8:3 r10

so you must go

- inwards (radius r8 is less than actual r10 )

and

- to "later" (clockwise)   ( m10 is "later"  than the actual m8 )

This may seem to be unfamiliar, but the orientation based on cardinal points is used for some thousand years and imaginary clocks are used by soldiers, boy scouts, pilots, blind people etc. for more than 100 years

In a real situation, VolksNav© can be learned within few minutes, that means, faster than the most seeking times. Then you'll be able to navigate everywhere as elegant as around the Christus statue in Rio de Janeiro, where the idea of a quantified polar orientation and an orientation standard was born.

.

Vision:

Mobile applications: Very soon also navigation devices and mobile phones will indicate such logical position codes and cardinal points , see www.volksnav.com/mobile

You're invited to test the program for pocketPC/smartphone with/without GPS by means of a download from www.volksnav.com

 

Natural World Co-ordinates: the same addressing methode will soon also be used 

- indoor www.volksnav.com/deutschesmuseum     www.volksnav.com/airportMUC 

and 

- within the whole globe, see  www.watchrose.com. Acc. to this, the international City Code of Windhoek is 

           WatchRose© m5:25 85  r78 80  

What is this good for? Just comparing the codes for example of Windhoek and  

        Bodenhausen  WatchRose©  m5:25 25  r78 60 

it is possible to evaluate that 

- the position of Bodenhausen  is "earlier" and closer to Munich than Windhoek, more exactly

    :2585 - :2525 = 60 km earlier

    r7880 - r7860 = 20 km closer

- the distance between both locations, the hipotenuse, will be between 60 and 60+20 km. 

- for advanced users:

the egocentrical direction   Windhoek / Bodenhausen  (to earlier/to inside) is QuoVides(R) 2, see www.quovides.com