Geographic tagging of network access points

A method for generating a geographic code for an access point, the method comprising:

• receiving location information corresponding to the access point including a latitude value and a longitude value of the access point;
• generating a first string by multiplying the latitude value by a first constant and converting it to base 60;
• generating a second string by multiplying the longitude value by the first constant and converting it to base 60;
• and
• creating a geographic code by encoding the location information using a compact encoding scheme including appending a first character produced by multiplying a highest order character of the second string by a second constant and adding it to a highest order character of the first string, a first plurality of characters from the first string and a second plurality of characters from the second string,
• wherein base 60 is a number system that uses 60 digits.

A method for decoding a geographic code to produce a location, the method comprising:

• receiving a geographic code including a plurality of characters;
• determining a first multiplier and a second multiplier from a first character of the geographic code;
• determining a latitude of the location by retrieving four characters following the first character of the geographic code, converting the four characters from base 60 to an integer and adding the first multiplier to the integer;
• and
• determining a longitude of the location by retrieving a last four characters of the geographic code, converting the last four characters from base 60 to an integer and adding the second multiplier to the integer,
• wherein base 60 is a number system that uses 60 digits.