Service d'adresse mondial

The Worldwide Address Service (french: service d'adresse mondial), abbreviated as ''Sedamo'', is an Internet-based service for conveying postal addresses (mailing addresses) especially in non-Latin characters (such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean). Any postal address gets a unique eight-letter code, the ''Sedamo'' address code, which can be used to retrieve the original address in native writing.

Background

Especially people from the Asian world face the problem that Westerners cannot write postal addresses in Asian scripts. Though work-arounds exist (such as writing the address using a romanization), these are error-prone and slow down the postal delivery, due to two reasons:
(1) Romanisations of Chinese, Japanese, Thai etc. contains ambiguities, thus, a romanised address cannot be re-translated into the original language.
(2) The postmen in the destination countries are not used to recognise addresses written in a foreign (Latin) alphabet. (The situation can be compared to a US-American mailman who has to decipher an address written in Chinese transcription.)

The ''service d´adresse mondial'' offers an easy way to ensure correctly written and formatted addresses. The address can be retrieved from the ''sedamo'' web site as an image (bitmap) and can be printed directly onto an envelope or address label. The letter-sending user has not to install any special software or foreign language font.

The ''service d´adresse mondial'' is operated by the Cross-Cultural Communication Club (CCCC), a charity registered in London, UK. Using ''sedamo'' via the web site is for free; the operation is financed by donations.

Usage

In the first step, the ''receiver'' looks up the ''sedamo'' address code of the destination address. This code is forwarded to the ''sender''.

In the second step, the sender uses the code to print out the foreign address in an international format (as recommended by the Universal Postal Union). The ''sedamo'' system automatically generates a romanisation of any address. This romanisation can be used if an express company only accepts addresses written in Latin.

The ''sedamo'' Address Code

The ''sedamo'' address code consists of eight letters, e.g.
CT-QP-ED-TP
(which is the code for the ''Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests'' inside the Temple of Heaven, Beijing, PRC). The dashes are for better readability only and can be omitted. The code may contain any Latin letter but "I" (which can be mistaken for "1" or "J"), N (similar to "M"), "O" ("0"), "S" ("5"), "V" ("U" or "W"), and "Z" ("2").
The code contains a check digit, simple errors such as a single mistyped letter, or the permutation of two successive letters does not lead to a wrong address but an error message. Moreover, neighbouring addresses get strongly different codes which shall prevent
mistakes.

The ''sedamo'' address code describes the address, not a receiver (person or company). The only exception is the cod
AA-AA-AA-AA
which directs to the address of the ''sedamo'' division of the Cross-Cultural Communication Club.

To mark sender's and receiver's address codes, a double arrow should be used: AA-AA-AA-AA >> CT-QP-ED-TP. For automation purposes, the CCCC suggests to print the code in Code 39 barcode with a leading "%+" (percent sign followed by plus sign) for the receiver's code and a "%-" (percent sign followed by minus sign) for the sender's code without dashes. For the example given above: *%-AAAAAAAA%+CTQPEDTP* or *%+CTQPEDTP%-AAAAAAAA*

sedamo-based services

* eMail2address
The web site email2address.com supports registering one's own e-Mail address in conjunction with the ''sedamo'' address code. After registration, the e-Mail address (electronic address) can be used to retrieve the ''sedamo'' address code (and thus the postal/physical address).

* sedamo-based software
The Cross-Cultural Communication Club (CCCC), the operator of ''sedamo'', licenses technology to software developers for accessing the ''sedamo'' database. This software can be used to retrieve addresses and to print address labels and waybills. The access to the ''sedamo'' database is controlled by username, password, and transaction authentication numbers (TANs) which are provided by the software developer who licensed the ''sedamo'' technology, not by the CCCC itself.

Examples of application

''sedamo'' address codes have been used in the book "ChinaBridgeBUSINESS", a trilingual business guide for China and Europe. The addresses of government departments, trade organisations, etc. are given in Latin transcription only and the reader can get the native address as described above.

Using the corresponding ''sedamo'' codes and the App "ChinaBridgeMOBILE"ChinaBridgeMOBILE, DAIBOLA Trade Ltd, http://daibola.biz/daibola_chinabridgemobile.en.php the users can store addresses on their smartphones and display them offline in large characters, e.g. when communicating with the local taxi driver. This helps on individual trips without knowing the local language.

References

{{reflist

External links

web site of the service d'adresse mondial

web site eMail2address.com

Address (geography)
Organisations based in London