These kinds of issues are what we've solved at QALocate.<p>There are a number of different issues here, which I think are only partly explored through the article.<p>Let's take as given that you need to direct a person some place. In the article, they are directing someone to a restaurant. But this gets complicate fast. Is this person a patron rather than, say, a deliver driver there to pick up an order, or a plumber there to fix and appliance, or an inspector there to observe the kitchens, or ...?<p>By using a lat/long, or any geo-coordinate, we lose the human-value of context. Each of the folks I list above has a very different place they potentially need to navigate to. And even if their destination is the same, the routes they took may NOT have been. Where they park, or were dropped by ride share, and which doors they use are also influenced by their role.<p>Using a geo-coordinate to drops the rich meaning that humans in all their roles require. A better solution is to use a real identity and then, when and where coordinates are needed, derive them based on the persons role, whether it be patron, plumber, or paramedic. As roles change, or as the structure itself changes, then directions change to meet them. I find this a much richer solution than just blindly telling my maps app to direct me to some GPS location.<p>Another issue hinted at but not deeply explored is that often what we want to specify is a region or volume, not a coordinate. Things in the real world consume volume. Coordinates are idealized points and do not. This may seem a trite observation, yet, the majority of our tools think in terms of points. With the rise of autonomous vehicles, especially drone delivery, we need to move towards representations of regions and/or volumes, depending on needs. I'm not convinced that geopolys are quite right for this task and instead we need something that is comfortable with the fuzzy and complicated boundaries humans have to deal with.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.qalocate.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.qalocate.com</a>