Countries Of The World – General & Geographic Knowledge Atlas

ISO3166-1 Country Of The World Seed Branch

Outline Shape  Fill Colour  Image  Text  Note  Single Data Fields  Index Marker Tags & Groups  Attached Hyperlinks

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CB-Accordion_Countries_Seed-Branch_Contextual-Resources_Dev06

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MindManager provides an unparalleled range of ‘information cartography’ functionality that enables contextual knowledge to be visibly embedded and attached to map branches in multiple ways….

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Outline Shape
For geographic area seed branches the outline shape indicates the nature of it’s borders with it’s equivelant neighbours.…

CIRCLE = all coastal borders (ie. ‘island(s)’)

ROUNDED RECTANGLE = mixed coastal & land borders

HEXAGON = all land borders (ie. ‘land-locked’)

OCTAGON = all land borders and also requires to cross 2 or more neighbouring equivelant areas to reach the coast (ie. ‘double land-locked’)

Note(s)
i) Control of shape – Assignment of shapes to geographic area seed branches is controlled by MindManager’s unique Smart Rule (‘conditional formatting’) feature using the ‘AREA TYPE – GEO – BORDERS’ tag (equivelant to thematic mapping in GIS).

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Fill Colour: Potential Country Status 
The fill colour of the country seed branches is white by default. This is so that initially they don’t dominate the map until the viewer ‘gets their eye in’ on the hierarchicial physical and logical layout of the map set by first 2 levels of Macro-Geographic Regions and Sub-Region framework (dark grey) branches.
It’s also so that users have a blank canvas to set the colouring criteria of the Countries as they would like as there are SO, SO MANY embedded / attached contextual elements – eg. the values of single data fields or index marker tags – that could be used to set the focus of the map using the MindManager smart rules feature. For example…

• colour by the current (or historic) World Bank Income Grouping.
• colour by Lowest / Highest / Average height above mean sea level.

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Note(s)
i) Colour control – The fill clour of this branch is actually an intrinsic part of the ‘0-Country’ branch style (rather than being controlled by a SMART Rule). Thus it can be changed by MindManger users in the ‘Topic Styles’ Task Pane.

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  Image: Country Flag & Thumbnail Location Map
In our atlas knowledge maps the image on geographic area seed branches is usually a thumbnail location map where possible, both to aid it’s unique identification and to place it in spatial context. For our ‘Countries of the World’ atlases we have used a ‘flat’ world map (see note below) that shows….

• Macro-Geographic Regions and Sub-regions – All the countries within a macro-geographic sub-region are coloured the same, based on a variation on a theme colour for the region e.g. all AFRICA sub-regions are differing shades of green, all EUROPE sub-regions are purple etc.
• Countries – All the land borders of each individual ISO3166 country are delineated.

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When used systematically in conjunction with the greyscale colour schema, a visual continuity threads through all the geographic levels of the seed branches that make up the atlas map….

• Region Location Map – Full world map with the relevant region & sub-regions fully coloured, and the rest of the world in greyscale.
• Sub-Region Location Map – Map zoomed to the ‘bounding box’ of the region, with the relevant sub-regions fully coloured, the other sub-regions in the region slightly coloured, and the rest of the world in greyscale.
• Country Location Map & Flag – As per the sub-region map, but with the relevant country coloured in red to highlight it. If the country is quite small in area there will be a dashed red box around it to aid it’s location. The country’s flag is incorporated into the image on the left side (so it is the first thing the user sees when following the branch connection lines with their eyes) to further aid unique identification, especially for geographically smaller countries.

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Note(s)
i) Map projection – The world map uses the Miller projection, which is a modified version of the Mercator projection, which reduces the northern hemishpere visual bias of latter, but it is still has it’s issues (see next note).

ii) Variable location map image widths – The regions and sub-regions vary greatly in their geographic shape and extent, which inevitably leads to location map images of different scales and widths when they are all reduced to the same height for embedding in the map branches. However this is further excaberated for OCEANIA (009) and it’s sub-regions as they occupy the extreme right and left margins of a ‘flat world map’ centred on the prime meredian (the zero degrees longitide line that runs from pole to pole through the Greenwich Observatory in London) at the same time. This leads to very wide location map images for the sub regions which overly increases the size of the seed branch within which they are embedded. It also means that the location maps for the countries have to have an ‘east side’ and ‘west side’, which further increases the width.

iii) Map source – All the world maps in this knowledge atlas map were produced using the free version of the Interactive Geo Maps plugin for WordPress.

iv) Source of flag images – Flag images are a free download from the good people at Icondrawer.com.

v) Minimal file size – All the images we use in this map has been optimised to reduce the file size.

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  Text: Official Name & Unique Identifying Codes
These are meticulously taken from official sources to ensure unambiguous identification of the country and easy cross-referencing with other data sources, especially GIS databases….

ISO3166-1 Official Country ‘Short Name’ in English

(ISO3166-1 alpha-2 2 character letter code – ISO3166-1 alpha-3 3 character letter code – ISO3166-1 numeric 3 digit code)

ISO3166-1 Official Country ‘Full Name’ in English

Note(s)
i) Visual indication of Non-Sovereign and Uninhabited States – The seed branches for thesse are visually differentiated from those for Sovereign States in 2 ways in our Countries of the World atlas maps….

• Non-Sovereign State – There is a single asterisk* after the country short name and the style of the branch text is italic (eg. ‘Bermuda* (BM – BMU – 060)’).
• Uninhabited Non-Sovereign State – As per the Non-Sovereign State but there are 2 asterisks** after the country short name, and the colour of the italic branch text is now dark grey (as opposed to black) (eg. ‘Bouvet Island** (BV – BVT – 074)’).

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The formatting of the style and colour of the font is controlled using MindManager’s unique Smart Rules feature working on the combination of the inclusion of an attached ‘COUNTRY – CON – SOVEREIGN STATUS’ index marker tag and/or asterisk(s) * in the branch text.

ii) Official names – One of the multiple hyperlinks attached to the seed branch is to the relavant page for the ISO3166 official name & code for the specific country on the ISO Online Portal. Thus the ones used on the map can be checked against the original source if it’s important (though codes & names rarely change, and all changes are documented on the page on the portal).

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Note: Additional Contextual Information About Country
Occasionally (i.e. most branches don’t have one) there may be additional information about the country attached to the seed branch as a note to provide further contextual knowledge to assist users. 

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  Embedded Data Fields: Country ‘Facts & Figures’ 
In our atlas maps the single data fields embedded in geographic area seed topics contain ‘core’ geodemographic data about the area that provide context and enables meaningful comparison between other areas of the same type. For regions, sub-regions and countries, data is taken mostly from the official UNdata stats, but if not available from there then perhaps the CIA World Fact Book, or Wikipedia.

The data fields embeded in this seed topic are…. 

UN Member State since (YYYY-MM-DD) – Date on which the country joined the United Nations.

Surface Area (sq km) (2021 est. UN) – As given in the UNdata stats

Population (1000’s) (2021 est. UN) – As given in the UNdata stats, estimated to the nearest 1000

Pop Density (per sq km) (2021 est. UN) – As given in the UNdata stats (ie. not calculated by us from the Surface Area and Population data)

Pop Median Age – All (2021 est. CIA) – Blurb

Pop Life Expectancy At Birth – All (2021 est. CIA) – Blurb

Coastline (km) (2021 est. CIA) – The cumulative length of the country’s coastline, as given in the CIA World Fact Book.

Border Length – Land (km) (2021 est. CIA) – The cumulative length of the country’s land borders with neighbouring countries, as given in the CIA World Fact Book.

Border ISO3166-1 Countries – Land (2021 CIA) – The number of countries the country shares land borders with, as given in the CIA World Fact Book.

Border ISO3166-1 Countries – Sea (2021 Wik) – The number of countries the country shares maritime borders with, as given in the Wikipedia List of countries and territories by maritime boundaries, which is the only ‘all ISO3166-1 countries on the one page’ source of such information we have so far found in the public domain.

Mean Elevation (m amsl) – The mean elevation of the country, as given in the CIA World Fact Book.

Highest Point (m amsl) (2021 CIA) – The highest geographic point of the country, as given in the CIA World Fact Book.

Lowest Point (m amsl) (2021 CIA) – The lowest geographic point of the country, as given in the CIA World Fact Book.

Income Grouping (2021 World Bank) – The most recent per-capita income grouping classification of the country as determined annually by the World Bank. All 189 World Bank member countries (plus 28 other economies with populations of more than 30,000) are assigned one of the following income groupings on July 1 each year (the start of the World Bank’s new financial year)….

• Low (L)
• Lower-Middle (LM)
• Upper-Middle (UM)
• High (H)

Assignment to a grouping is based on the estimate of the country’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in U.S. dollars for the previous calendar year, with income converted from local currency into US dollars using the World Bank Atlas method.

Note(s)
i) Hide / Show – This embedded feature can be hidden / shown by clicking the green toggle arrow just above the top right corner of the embedded feature.

ii) Field derivation – Fields marked with an *asterisk above (in bold with the gear icon in the embedded fields in the branch in the map) are calculated from the values of data fields in sub-branches using MindManager’s unique ‘auto-calculation’ feature.

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  Index Marker Tags & Goups: Various
A variety of Index Markers arranged into groups are used throughout the map to tag (i.e. attach to) branches as appropriate. They serve multiple functions….

• Additional visual knowledge – Tags provide additional contextual knowledge about the seed branch (they can be toggled on or off so as to be visible or not to users within the map).
• Dynamic filtering – Tags enable dynamic filtering of the map content to only show / hide branches that have been tagged with the selected marker(s) (they can be used to do so irrespective of whether or not they are visible to the user on the branches).
• Internal navigation – Within MindManager tags provide a useful means of internal navigation between map branches – clicking on the branch that is shown as being tagged with that marker in the ‘Index Task Pane’ will immediately re-focus the map on that branch (not possible in the HTML version of the map).
• Branch visual formatting – Tags are one of the triggers that can be used to dynamically visually format the individual map branches they are attached to using MindManager’s unique Smart Rules’ feature e.g. adding a fill colour to the days of the week branches that make up the weekend days in a calendar map to make them stand out.

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The index marker tags attached to this seed topic are from the following groups….

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CON = CONSTITUTIONAL-RELATED TAGS 
The ‘CON’ prefix indicates ‘constitutional’ related tags, which almost by definition mean these are only applied to countries with consitutions which define how they are set up and operate e.g. is it ‘sovereign’ or ‘non-sovereign’? Which of these applies will then determine how the country interacts with other countries in international affairs….

COUNTRY – CON – DEPENDENT RELATIONSHIPS – The other ISO3166-1 countries that have a dependant relationship with this country eg. as an oversses territory. Relationships are recorded both ways so the ‘mother’ country seed branch is tagged with the dependant countries, and all the dependant countries are tagged with the ‘mother’ country..

COUNTRY – CON – SOVEREIGN STATUS – Either a sovereign state or non-sovereign state.

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FIN = FINANCIAL-RELATED TAGS
The ‘FIN’ prefix indicates finance & economy related tags, which almost by definition mean these are only applied to countries with treasuries and economies e.g. the currency it officially uses, or economic indicators like World Bank Income Classification….

COUNTRY – FIN – CURRENCY (ISO4217) – The tags in this group are all the values in ISO 4217, the international standard for currency codes. Each tag comprises of 3 elements….

• Currency Name – As listed in List One of the standard (which can be downloaded as a spreadsheet).
• Alphabetic (Alpha-3) Code – The 3 letter alphabetic code is based on another ISO standard, ISO 3166, which lists the codes for country names. The first two letters of the ISO 4217 three-letter code are the same as the code for the country name, and, where possible, the third letter corresponds to the first letter of the currency name. For example the US dollar is represented as USD – the US coming from the ISO 3166 country code and the D for dollar.
• Numeric Code – The three-digit numeric code is useful when currency codes need to be understood in countries that do not use Latin scripts and for computerized systems. Where possible, the three-digit numeric code is the same as the numeric country code.

COUNTRY – FIN – INCOME (WORLD BANK) – The tags in this group are the income grouping classification of the country – as determined annually by the World Bank – for the last 5 years.  All 189 World Bank member countries (plus 28 other economies with populations of more than 30,000) are assigned one of the following income groupings on July 1 each year (the start of the World Bank’s new financial year)….

• Low (L)
• Lower-Middle (LM)
• Upper-Middle (UM)
• High (H)

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GEO = GEOGRAPHIC-RELATED TAGS 
The ‘GEO’ prefix indicates ‘real world’ human or physical geography related tags, usually areas of some kind, often in a hierarchy e.g. UN Geoscheme international regions & sub-regions, ISO3166 countries, states, counties, communities etc. As a sub-prefix it indicates the geographic aspects of the branch subject. The titles of GEO tags usually incorporate the official ID codes as well as names, and will always be present in some form in ‘atlas’ knowledge maps.
‘GEO tags’ allow ‘spatial intelligence’ to be built into a map, even if it isn’t structured in a geographic way (e.g. tagging the ‘National Day’ event branches of all the countries of the world in our Calendar Maps). When a map is ‘geo filtered’ using one of these tags it is the equivalent of using ‘Lookup Tables’ in Geographic Information Systems (GIS)….

COUNTRY – GEO – BORDERING SEAS (IHO S23 – 1953) – In this group there is a tag for every ocean and marginal sea – as defined by the 1952 (3rd) edition of the International Hydrographic Organisation’s publication S23 – Limits of Oceans and Seas – that form the coastline of the ISO3166-1 country.

COUNTRY – GEO -BORDERING SEAS (IHO S23 – 1953) – In this group there is a tag for every ocean and marginal sea – as defined by the 2002 draft (4th) edition of the International Hydrographic Organisation’s publication S23 – Limits of Oceans and Seas – that form the coastline of the ISO3166-1 country.

COUNTRY – GEO – BORDERS – As per the topic shape that indicates the nature of the country’s borders with it’s equivelant neighbours – all coastal borders (ie. ‘island(s)’),  all land borders (ie. ‘land-locked’), mixed coastal & Land borders.

COUNTRY- GEO – GLOBAL HEMISPHERE – Which hemishpere the ISO3166-1 Country wholly lies in – east or west, north or south – or if it straddles both.

COUNTRY – GEO – ISO3166-1 – Tagged with it’s own tag – ISO3166-1 Official Country ‘Short Name’ in English (ISO3166-1 alpha-2 2 character letter code – ISO3166-1 alpha-3 3 character letter code – ISO3166-1 numeric 3 digit code). As only the country seed branch is tagged from this group, it can be used to internally navigate between the country seed topics.

COUNTRY – GEO – ISO3166-1 (ALPHA-2) – Just the 2 letter (‘Alpha 2’) code part of the ISO3166-1 listing.

COUNTRY – GEO – ISO3166-1 (ALPHA-2) – Just the 3 letter (‘Alpha 3’) code part of the ISO3166-1 listing.

COUNTRY – GEO – ISO3166-1 (NUMERIC) – Just the 3 character numeric code part of the ISO3166-1 listing.

COUNTRY- GEO – SHARED BORDERS (LAND) – The countries the country shares land borders with, as given in the CIA World Fact Book.

COUNTRY- GEO – SHARED BORDERS (SEA) – The countries the country shares maritime borders with, as given in the Wikipedia List of countries and territories by maritime boundaries, which is the only ‘all ISO3166-1 countries on the one page’ source of such information we have so far found in the public domain.

COUNTRY- GEO – UN GEOSCHEME – All appropriate tags for the macro region and sub-region.

COUNTRY- GEO – UN GEOSCHEME (NUMERIC) – Just the numeric code part of the UN Geoscheme listing. Note this code is defined as part of the UN Staistics Division M49 standard rather than in ISO3166.

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ORG = ORGANISATIONAL-RELATED TAGS 
The ‘ORG’ prefix indicates organisational related tags, meaning how the country operates as an ‘organisation’ on the international stage e.g. as a member of international organisations, or groupings within the United Nations or World Bank etc….

COUNTRY – ORG – INTER-GOVERNMENT – The tags in this group show the most important Inter-Governmental Organisations (IGO’s), or significant international groupings, that the country belongs to.

COUNTRY – ORG – UN GROUPINGS – The tags in this group show the various groupings within the United Nations the country belongs to. These come under 2 general headings….

• Regional geographic groupings
• Development (where they are along the curve)

COUNTRY – ORG – WORLD BANK GROUPINGS – The tags in this group show the various other ways in which the World Bank groups countries (‘economies’) to enable the aggregation, grouping, and comparison of statistical data of interest, and the presentation of key statistics. More information about this is available here (note the grouping of countries by Income is covered by the ‘COUNTRY – FIN – INCOME (WORLD BANK)’ tag group).

Note(s)
i) Tag ‘types’ – The names of the marker tag groups are prefixed acccording to the ‘type’ of marker tags they contain..

• GEO – prefix indicates geographic tags, usually areas of some kind, often in a hierarchy eg. UN Geoscheme regions, sub-regions, countries, states, counties, communities etc. The names of GEO tags incorporate the official ID codes as well as names, and will always be present in some form in ‘atlas’ knowledge maps. GEO tags allow ‘spatial intelligence’ to be built into a map, even if it isn’t structured in a geographic way. When a map is ‘geo filtered’ using one of these tags it is the equivalent of using ‘Lookup Tables’ in ‘GIS’.
• TIME – prefix indicates time based tags. These can be generic (eg. months of the year, days of the week etc.) or specific (eg. a year, a date etc.). TIME tags will always be present in some form in ‘calendar’ knowledge maps.
• RESOURCE – prefix indicates some aspect of a resource, such as the type of resource or who is responsible for creating / maintaining it.

ii) Tag function in MindManager – Within MindManager tags.…

• provide a useful means of internal navigation between map topics (clicking on the branch that is shown as being tagged with that marker in the ‘Index Task Pane’ will immediately focus the map on that banch).
• can be generated automatically from branches (the title of the parent branch is the group name and those of all the immediate sub-branches become the individual tags within the group) .
• can be copied and pasted in their groups from one map to another.

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  Attached Hyperlinks: Multiple
See next section for full details.