Since Umibot is continuously searching the web for new & notable for all things geo, here’s one of note…The Republic of Ireland is going postal! Or, more accurately, An Post (national post system), will introduce a national postcode system “sooner rather than later.”

Dublin has had a postcode system since the 1960s but not committed itself to a national postcode system until last year.

It will be interesting to note how administrative delineations emerge; as Umibot knows, ZIP codes aren’t all that useful in the US for policymaking–they are are defined based on a mail carriers’ route, and in fact are not even self-contained areas, yet they persist for direct marketing purposes despite obvious shortcomings. The history of the Zone Improvement Program is a curious one. We’ve also written about the ‘ZIP code fallacy’ on this blog.