Countries Of The World – General & Geographic Knowledge Atlas

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This fully interactive MindManger / HTML digital knowledge map is a visually structured, curated by a human, comprehensive index of – and ‘discover within the big picture context, minimal click’ portal to – XXX official / definitive / plain old useful, freely available in the public domain for general use, general and geographic knowledge resources about each of the 249 countries & territories of the world (as defined by ISO3166-1). It is an indispensibe, time-saving research aid to individuals and organisations with an interest in the subjects covered.

Price: £999.99 (inc. VAT)

Explore the product tabs below for…

a full product description as well as comprehensive descriptions of the general features, knowledge seed branches and knowledge link collections that make up this knowledge atlas map.
the full range of buying options (this map may also be available as part of one or more product bundles).

Don’t forget that you can also view / download a sample map in MindManager (.mmap) or HTML5 (.html) format.

MAP STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Our Countries of the World – General & Geographic Atlas builds on the knowledge framework provided by our ISO3166-1 Countries Of The World – Base Atlas through the addition of collections of sub-branches off of the country seed branch, each with a single hyperlink to official / definitive / plain old useful General or Geographic knowledge resources about it found in the public domian…

General Knowledge Resource Link Collection – This includes the country’s page(s) for BBC News, CIA World Fact Book & World Leaders & Cabinet Members Directory, ISO Online Portal, Wikipedia Category & Main Article, Portal & Outline, and those produced by the United Nations Staistics Division.

Geographic Knowledge Resource Link Collection – This includes online mapping services like Google Maps and Open Street Map (with a summary of all available services on GeoHack), static map libraries from the United Nations Geospatial Division & agencies (eg. UNITAR) and WikiMedia Commons Atlas of the World, as well as the Wikipedia Geography Sub-Category & Main Article.

A selection of the most fundamental / useful of these general & geographic links (ie. not all) are the ones that have been attached to the country seed branches themselves to create – alongside those for the UN defined Macro Geographical (Continental) Regions And Sub-Regions – the ‘bigger picture’ visual framework that is the atlas basemap for all our ‘countries of the world’ knowledg maps.

This map is the ideal starting point for ‘thumb & brain friendly’ desktop (or even ‘in the field’) research for anyone with an interest in specific countries of the world.

MindManager Users – As well as ‘full featured viewing and interactive querying & filtering, you are free to edit, add to, adapt and/or re-purpose this map in whole or in part, and/or use it as a source of content that can be added to your own existing maps. For example…

Record the important information from the listed resources in the map (as a note or sub-branches) as you discover it to create a ‘single source of truth’ for your research project that’s always up to date.
Copy and paste a ‘GEO’ tag group to an existing map, assign to branches as appropriate, and interactively filter using your new found ‘geo-intelligence’ 😉
Tag team members to specific Region / Country branches to create a virtual sales / operational territory map with built-in links to the world’s best public domain general and geographic knowledge resources (or physically re-arrange the regions / countries to form the territories).

Explore the product tabs for comprehensive descriptions of the knowledge seed branches and knowledge link collections that make up this knowledge atlas map, as well as view / download a sample map in MindManager (.mmap) or HTML5 (.html) format. ….

You can buy the latest edition of the Countries of the World Base Atlas Map on it’s own, or bundled with the other Knowledge Atlases which are based on it, below. Looking for other atlas knowledge map combinations? Browse the ‘Related Maps’ tab on the map product page.

XXXX Map branches, containing...
YYYY Hyperlinks to public domain general & geographic knowledge resources, about the...
249 ISO3166-1 defined countries of the world, distributed between the...
6 UN defined Macro geographic regions, 2 intermediate & 22 sub-regions

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Price: £999.99

May also be available as part of one or more product bundles

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Map Guide

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We take full advantage of MindManager’s many unique ‘information cartography’ features when creating our unique maps so we can pack in 1000’s of ‘bits’ of knowledge into a single, visually structured, intuitive to navigate document that can be easily shared. Here are the main features of this Base Countries of the World Knowledge Atlas Map…

Big Map With 100's Of Branches & Links And Capacity For Plenty More

MindManager maps can have 1000’s of branches without affecting the map ‘performance’ when viewed, either in MindManager software, or in a browser (the exported HTML version). Thus mapping 249 official countries of the world distributed across 7 Macro-Geographic regions, 2 intermediate- & 22 sub-regions is ‘a skoosh‘ (as we say in Scotland ;-), with plenty of spare capacity for users to add their own content.

The biggest knowledge map we have created so far has 20,000+ branches – enough for us to knowledge map the solar system [INSERT LINK] – so we can be fairly confident that we can map all the ‘things’ in a knowledge space before we start!

Grid Style Layout Enables 'Thumb Friendly' Browsing & Ease Of Use

The main map branches are physically arranged in an ‘organisation map & vertical tree’ (‘Org-Tre’) layout to form a familiar calendar ‘grid’ of months and days. This…

‘packs as much in’ to a single screen view as possible.
minimises the amount of user scrolling to access the content as branches expand vertically down (rather than horizontally across as in a ‘traditional’ radial map layout).
makes for much more ‘thumb friendly browsing’, especially on small screens.

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In terms of logical layout, by default the 1st column in our Countries of the World atlas maps is for ‘the Americas’, working across the standard world map from left to right, east to west, but MindManager users are free to re-arrange and ‘mix and match’ content from other maps to build their own atlas as required.

Embedded & Attached Elements Provide Additional Contextual Knowledge

Knowledge elements embedded within, or attached to, seed branches provide another ‘channel’ of knowlegde that adds context to the more detailed knowledge contained in the multiple official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ public domain resources linked to in the seed branch. Elements like…

unique icons & images
spreadsheet tables
charts
single data fields
index marker tags

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When ‘core’ knowledge from those resources is incorporated into branches using these elements it reduces the need to consult them in the first place. Also some of the elements can be used to ‘conditionally format’ the map eg. colouring the branches based on a particular data value. For example encoding the nature of a country’s borders with their neighbouring counties and the sea, by changing the shape of thier seed branch…

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

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

ROUNDED RECTANGLE = mixed coastal & Land borders

Visually Rich 'Knowledge Seed' Branch For Every Macro-Geographic Region, Intermediate & Sub-Region

As well as defining the physical and logical layout of the map, the first 2 / 3 levels of branches are also ‘knowledge seed points’ for each UN defined Macro Geographical (Continental) Regions, Intermediary Regions & Sub-Regions. They are visually rich, with a unique, embedded bespoke location map image & textual description, as well as embedded geo-statistical data showing the geographic area and population etc.

The attached elements of internal navigation links to all the days of the month sub-branches, external links to public domain resources about the generic and specific month and happenings thereon, and index marker tags that enable dynamic ‘temporal filtering’ of the map contents (and any other map they are incorporated in), further add to the branch’s ‘knowledge richness’.

A full description of all the knowledge elements embedded within, and attached to, this seed branch is given in the ‘ Seed Branches’ tab.

Visually Rich 'Knowledge Seed' Branch For Every Official Country of the World

Likewise the 3rd or 4th level branches are ‘knowledge seed points’ for each official Country of the World. They are similarly visually rich, with a unique, embedded location map & flag image & ‘rich’ (ie. variably formatted) name and official unique identifying codes. They are also shaped differently if they have all sea borders (ie. ‘islands), all land borders (ie. ‘land-locked’) or a mixture.

The attached elements of internal links to the ‘parent’ region branch, external links to public domain general & geographic knowledge resources about the country, and index marker tags that enable dynamic ‘geo-filtering’ of the map contents (and any other map they are incorporated in), further add to the branch’s ‘knowledge richness’.

A full description of all the knowledge elements embedded within, and attached to, this seed branch is given in the ‘ Seed Branches’ tab.

Attached Multiple Hyperlinks To Public Domain Knowledge Resources

Multiple hyperlinks to definitive / official / ‘plain old useful’ knowledge resources available in the public domain about the subject attached to seed branches is another key feature of our knowledge maps. The ‘user definable link text’ (another unque MindManager feature) allows us to give clarity as to the resource being linked to (which can be very variable if left to the default text provided by the website).

As well as increasing the amount of knowledge that can be ‘squeezed’ into a map without increasing the ‘visual clutter’ of additional branches, it means these links can be retained if the seed branches are used in other maps, or this map is re-purposed.

The full list of multiple knowledge resource hyperlinks attached to all the seed topics in this map is given in the ‘ Seed Branches’ tab.

Attached Index Marker Tag Groups Enable 'Temporal Intelligent' & Other Map Filtering

Branches in the map may be tagged with one or more ‘index markers’ from one or more ‘marker groups’. These enable intelligent map filtering and quick navigation. The prefix to the tag group name indicates the subject nature of the tags. For example the ‘GEO’ tags, as used in this map, are all geographic in nature – such as different hierarchies of geographic areas and physical or human geographic attributes about them – which gives the map in-built ‘geographic intelligence’ and the ability to be ‘geo-filtered’.

Note that MindManager software users can copy and paste any of the marker groups in this map to any other map, thereby adding ‘geo intelligence’ to them too, even if they are not focused on / structured by geographic areas.

The full list of index marker tags attached to all the seed topics in this map is given in the ‘ Seed Branches’ tab.

Map Legend Branch Describes Each Topic 'Type' With Links To Further Information

Every map needs to have a legend that explains the cartographic structure, colours and symbology used, and our knowledge maps are no different. The ‘Map Legend’ branch describes each ‘type’ of map branch, and all the elements embedded within and attached to them, with links to further knowledge resources about the subject where necessary.

'Contributing Online Knowledge-bases Branch' With Links To Further Information

We hunt down and assess many official / definitive / ‘at least practical & useful’ online knowledge resources in the process of creating our maps. The ‘Contributing Online Knowledge-bases’ branch has links to all the ones that are actually linked to in the main map content, as well as some others that aren’t (for whatever reason) but are nonetheless a good additional source of knowledge about the subject.

It is a frustrating fact of life that some online resources are organised better than others, and not all are ‘linkable to’ at the individual ‘building block’ level and so can’t be included in seed branches.

User Definable Visual Formatting Using Built-in Topic Styles & Smart Rules

The visual formatting of all the map elements is controlled using a combination of Map Theme, Topic Styles and Smart Rules via our structured system of topic styles. The structured system makes for easier alteration ‘on the hoof’ and therefore quicker map building.

Note MindManager software users can change the appearance of the whole map with just a few clicks eg. to match their own ‘in-house’ style & branding.

Spare

With 8,695 knowledge resource links over 2,509 branches, this map is a useful, contextual knowledge resource in it’s own right, as well as being a visually structured index of the best definitive / official / plain old useful knowledge resources available in the public domain about the political makeup of Scotland’s 1,227 Local Councillors, 354 Electoral Wards and 32 Local Councils. Thanks to MindManager’s unique capabilities it has plenty of spare capacity for further content to be added in the future.

Spare

Knowledge seed branches are the foundation of our knowledge maps, with each seed branch representing a particular ‘building block’ (or an aspect of it) that we humans use to structure, and make sense of, the ‘real world’ we live in e.g. geographic areas and their subdivisions in our World Atlas Maps, time and it’s sub-division into manageable chunks in our Annual Calendar Maps etc. Seed branches are ‘visual knowledge rich’, with each branch having a mix of knowledge elements (most of which are unque to MindManger) embedded within it, or attached to it, that convey a ‘base level’ of core knowledge about the ‘building block’ along with links to the source knowledge resources i.e. they are mini knowledge portals in their own right.
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The ‘knowledge elements’ are a mix of the following (i.e. not all elements are used in every seed branch)…
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Outline Shape – The outline shape may convey knowledge about some aspect of the subject of the branch e.g. the nature of a geographic adminsitrative area’s borders with respect to the sea…

Colour – The colour of the fill / text may convey knowledge about some aspect of the subject of the branch. For example in our Political Knowledge Maps the colours associated with the main political parties are used throughout to make it easier to ‘see at a glance’ what the current situation is, such as the fill of the elected member branch being coloured by their political party, which in turn informs the fill colour of the constituency branch, which is also reflected in the cells of the embedded elections results spreadsheet table.

Image [Embedded] – Images – such as thumbnail location maps, flags, icons, people profile pictures etc. – provide a unique visual element that can quickly both convey knowledge to users and help them to navigate their way through the map. MindManager only allows a single image to be embedded within a branch, which may be sufficient for the requirements, but with a bit of forethought (and some software ‘jigery pokery’ 🙂) we can also create one that incorporates more than one visual element (e.g. a logo and a location map) so that, like the ‘rich’ branch text, more core knowledge can be ‘packed in’ to a single branch without visually overwhelming the user.

Text [Embedded] – MindManager’s unique ability to handle ‘rich’ text – i.e. text that can have variably formatted individual chatracters within a single text ‘string’ – means we can pack several different pieces of ‘core knowledge’ into the text of a single branch without it visually overwhelming the user. For example…
The Name of a Geographic Area
(The official Unique Identifying Code(s))
The Type of Geographic Area

Note [Attached] – Contains supplementary information with all the elements of a word processed page – variably formatted (‘rich’) text, hyperlinks, tables and images.

Data Elements [Embedded] – MindManager has 2 unique ways to add contextual ‘facts & figures’ (i.e. text and number fields) to individual branches so that they are visible to the user (though only one can be used on any given branch at a time)…

Spreadsheet Table / Chart – A branch specific spreadsheet table (i.e. not referencing cells in a spreadsheet file stored elsewhere), with all the usual spreadsheet functions (e.g. formulas), which, if the data is structured appropriately, can be toggled between ‘table’ and ‘chart’ view (though this view is ‘fixed’ when the map is exported to create the HTML version).
Multiple Single Data Fields [Embedded] – These are like single cells in a spreadsheet and multiple different fields can be attached to a branch, with the added bonus that the values in any one can be used as one of the triggers to visually format the branch using MindManager’s Smart (‘conditional formatting’) Rules feature.

Index Marker Tags [Attached] – Arranged in groups and added to individual branches as appropriate, index marker tags add contextual knowledge, enable dynamic filtering to hide / show map content, aid internal navigation and can be used as one of the triggers to visually format the branch using MindManager’s Smart (‘conditional formatting’) Rules feature.

Multiple Hyperlinks [Attached] – Another unique feature, multiple links to a range of official / definitive / plain old useful knowledge resources about the subject of the seed branch – usually selected from the full range of general & geographic knowledge resource collections – help turn the map into a knowledge portal without adding to the visual clutter.

All the seed branches and their associated embedded / attached contextual knowledge elements used in this map are described in detail below…

UN GeoScheme Macro Geographic (Continental) Region Seed Branch

Though the main focus of this knowledge atlas is ‘countries of the world’, they exist in a wider geographic, and geo-political, context. Thus rather than just arranging the country knowledge seed branches alphabetically by name – which is problematic for non-English speakers and ultimately just not a very useful logial structure for a knowledge atlas map – they are arranged according to macro-geographic regions (‘continents’) and sub-regions.

The United Nations Geoscheme (M49) standard ‘Geoscheme’ is the one that assigns the 249 countries and territories of the world (defined by the ISO3166-1 international standard) to 6 macro-regions and 22 sub-regions. It was devised by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) based on the M49 coding classification (the standard that provides the numerical part of the code for ISO3166).

From the Methodology for Geographic Region codes (M49) web page…
“The list of geographic regions presents the composition of geographical regions used by the Statistics Division in its publications and databases. Each country or area is shown in one region only. These geographic regions are based on continental regions; which are further subdivided into sub-regions and intermediary regions drawn as to obtain greater homogeneity in sizes of population, demographic circumstances and accuracy of demographic statistics.
The assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories by the United Nations.”

Thus the knowledge seed branches for the macro-geographic regions & sub-regions create the main framework structure of this knowledge atlas within which the country seed branches sit. The knowledge resources embedded within, or attached to, those seed branches are described in detail below…

UN GeoScheme Macro Geographic (Continental) Region Seed Branch

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

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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) 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).

ii) Given the sheer size and extent of Continetal Regions, most are shaped as the rounded rectangles of mixed land and sea borders, but there is the odd island surprise or 2…

Fill Colour
The dark grey colour of the region and sub-region branches denote these as main framework branches. The ‘first couple’ of branch levels have a lot of ‘heavy lifting’ to as they define both the visual, and logical, layout of the map, and so are usually dark grey in order to create a solid visual base to contrast with the colours elsewhere, with the colour set by the ‘topic style’.

Image: Thumbnail Location Map
All maps shows the coloured region within an otherwise greyscale world map with individual country borders. Each region & sub-regions have distinct but common colour schemes e.g. all AFRICA sub-regions are green.

Note(s)
i) We include thumbnail location maps on geographic area seed topics where possible to aid instant user identification and place it in spatial context. They may be sourced from maps freely available in the public domain, or created by us especially from public domain spatial data using GIS or other software tools.

ii) All images used in our maps are always optimised to minimise the file sizes.

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

UN GEOSCHEME REGION NAME

(Official UN GeoScheme (M49) Code)

Note(s)
i) Further information on the region / sub-region names & codes can be foiund on the Methodology for Geographic Region codes (M49) page of the UN Statistical Division’s (UNdata) website. It helpfully also contains the region, sub-region & country names in all the official lanuages of the UN – English, Chinese, Russian, French, Spanish & Arabic.

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

Single Data Fields: Region ‘Facts & Figures’’
Embedded Single Data Fields (called ‘Topic Properties’ in MindManager speak) is one of the two unique ways (the other being Spreadsheet Tables) that MindManager has of visiblly embedding ‘facts & figures’ (i.e. text and number fields) into individual map branches so that they are immediately in the visual field of the user (though only one can be used on any given branch at a time, and they can be toggled to ‘show’ or ‘hide’).
They are like single cells in spreadsheets…

The data can be numeric or text.
Data can be enetered manually, or via automated processes using MindManager’s various import options (e.g. the Excel spreadsheet importer allows selected columns to become embedded data fields on the branches, which themselves have been created from the contents of other columns).
Numeric data values in fields can also be automatically calculated from other fields, either in the same branch or in other branches in the map. Formulas that define the values are built using MindManager’s unique ‘Autocalc’ feature.
The values in data fields may be used to control aspects of the visual formatting (eg. colour or shape) of the seed branch using Mindmanager’s ‘Smart Rules’ (visual formatting) feature (again unique).

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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…

*REGION ISO3166-1 ALL Countries – Subtotal of all ISO3166-1 official countries in the region (automatically calculated from the values in other data fields embedded in the sub-region sub-branches using MindManager’s unique ‘autocalc’ feature).

*REGION ISO3166-1 Sovereign States – Subtotal of all ISO3166-1 official sovereign states in the region (automatically calculated from the values in other data fields embedded in the sub-region sub-branches using MindManager’s unique ‘autocalc’ feature).

*REGION ISO3166-1 Non-Sovereign Countries – Subtotal of all ISO3166-1 official non-sovereign countries (or ‘territories’) in the region (automatically calculated from the values in other data fields embedded in the sub-region sub-branches using MindManager’s unique ‘autocalc’ feature).

REGION Surface Area (sq km) (2021 est. UN) – The geographic extent of the region, as given in the UNdata stats.

REGION Population (1000’s) (2021 est. UN) – The latest total population figure of the region, as given in the UNdata stats at the time of the map creation / update, estimated to the nearest 1000.

REGION Pop Density (per sq km) (2021 est. UN) – The latest figure as given in the UNdata stats at the time of the map creation / update (ie. not calculated by us from the Surface Area and Population data).

REGION Highest Point (m amsl) (2021 est. CIA) – The highest topographic point in the region in metres above mean sea level (actually the highest of the highest points recorded in any of the region’s sub-regions, which in turn is the highest of the highest points recorded in any of the sub-region’s ISO3166-1 countries, as given in the country page on the CIA World Fact Book and/or Wikipedia Outline and Geography main articles.

REGION Lowest Point (m amsl) (2021 est. CIA) – The lowest topographic point in the region in metres above mean sea level, sourced as per the region highest point.

Note(s)
i) 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.

Index Marker Tags & Groups: 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…

REGION – GEO – UN GEOSCHEME – Region is tagged with it’s own tag from the Geoscheme tag group, which may also be used on other branches in the map.

REGION – 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.

REGION – GEO – GLOBAL HEMISPHERE – Which hemishpere the region wholly lies in – east or west, north or south – or if it straddles both.

REGION – GEO – UN GEOSCHEME (NUMERIC) – Jhich of the oceans and marginal seas – as defined by the 2002 draft (4th) edition of the International Hydrographic Organisation’s publication ‘S-23 – Limits of Oceans and Seas’ – that form the coastline of the region / sub-region.

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

Note(s)
i) 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.

Attached Hyperlinks: Multiple
See next section for full details

UN GeoScheme Macro Geographic (Continental) Region Seed Branch

External Knowledge Resource Links Internal Navigation Links

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Uniquely to MindManger, a single map branch can have multiple hyperlinks attached to it, which can be a mixture of any of the following 4 ‘types’….

External Link – These are Universal Resource Links (URLs) to pages on the world wide web (or an internal intranet). External links are indicated by a favicon, the ‘wee picture’ that is usually unique to the ‘linked to’ website and that it automatically supplies to MindManager (and browser software) as part of the linking process. e.g. the famous Wikipedia favicon is .
Internal Link – These links are to another branch in the same map, and they provide a quick means of internal navigation to users as clicking on it will ‘re-focus’ the map on the ‘destination’ branch. Internal links are indicated by the icon.
File Link – The path to files stored on computer hard-drives (though it can also be embedded within the map file too). Clicking on it will open the file in the application required (which must be installed on your computer). File links are indicated by the file application icon e.g. the famous Adobe Acrobat file icon .
E-mail Link – Clicking on this will open up your default e-mail application with an e-mail to that address. E-mail links are indicated by the icon.

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If there is only one link attached to a branch then the icon indicated above will be displayed at the end of it, and clicking on the icon will ‘activate’ the link. However if a branch has more than one hyperlink attached to it, the single link icon will be replaced by a chain link icon . The process for activating any of the attached multiple links varies between the MindManager and HTML versions of the map…

MindManager Map – Clicking on the chain link icon will reveal a ‘dropdown panel’ listing all the links, each with their icon beside it, and clicking on any one will activate it.
HTML Map – Clicking on the chain link icon will open the links tabs in the sidebar of the browser window, where all the links will be listed beside their icons. Click on one to activate and off you go. (Note prior to MindManager 2024 the HTML export map separated external and internal links into 2 separate tabs – external to Attachments & Links’ Tab indicated by the icon, and internal to the ‘Related Topics’ Tab indicated by the icon).

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Most of the links in our knowledge maps will be to external URLs (with occasional e-mail links if the map includes people such as elected representatives), but there are usually also a few internal links to other map branches from the main framework and seed branches to improve internal navigation. Though it is possible to attach files to maps, it is not something that we do so that we can keep the file size to a minimum, however there may also be the occasional direct link to an online PDF file (i.e. clicking the link will immediately download the file to your device).

Finally it should be pointed out that, even though we have differentiated the links attached to this seed branch into different ‘types’, this is for descriptive convenience only as they are all displayed on a single list. However we usually add them such that they display in the following order…

External links to core General Knowledge Resources (arranged A-Z by site name i.e. links to Wikipedia are generally low down if not last).
External links to core Geographic Knowledge Resources (arranged A-Z by site name i.e. links to Wikipedia are generally low down if not last).
Internal links to other branches.

External Knowledge Resource Links

Mutiple hyperlinks to original official / definitive / plain old useful knowledge sources, freely available in the online public domain, is one of the main features of our knowledge maps. By doing this…

original sources get used more often, by more people thereby improving user metrics (such resources are often created & maintained at public expense).
resource wheels are not being re-invented because potential users don’t know it already exists.
conversely in the circular knowledge economy way of crowd-sourced websites like Wikipedia, if there is knowledge that users could add to an existing page that is linked to, or even starting a new page that is missing from the knowledgebase, then everybody will benefit even more.
errors get spotted quicker as ‘there are more eyes on’, thereby improving the quality for everybody.
updates get promulgated sooner to end users.
rather than us having to interpret original sources to create further information resources around “big picture” context for a subject we are not experts in, users of our map can “get it straight from the horses mouth” as it were, so everybody benefits.

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The following external knowledge resource links are attached to this seed branch (arranged in alphabetical order within the groupings)…

General Information Knowledge Resource Links
These are links to selected ‘core’ official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ general knowledge resources about the macro geographic region / sub-region. They are an ideal starting point for those who want to find out more about about it, be it for casual interest or more focused desktop research for a specific purpose…

CIA World Factbook – Some, but by no means all, regions and sub-regions have their own entry in the factbook.

UNdata Stats – Official statistics about the region compiled, published & maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNdata).

Wikipedia Category: GeoScheme Region – List page of all region related categories.

Wikipedia: United Nations GeoScheme For Region Page – This is the Wikipedia article specifically about the UN Geoscheme region and the list of ISO3166-1 countries within it..

Wikipedia: GeoScheme Region Page – This is the main Wikipedia article summarising the climate, geography and demographics of the regions as general geographic areas (equivelant to a’country page’ article). There may also be a section on the countries within the sub-region in differing classification systems used by other international organisations.

Wikipedia: GeoScheme Region Portal – Wikipedia Portals are another useful entry-point that help readers and/or editors navigate their way through Wikipedia topic areas, promote content and encourage contribution. They may be associated with one or more WikiProjects, such as those concerned with gathering & publishing the information related to each Geoscheme region on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia: GeoScheme Region Outline Page – An introduction to the region structured as a series of hierarchical lists of links to essential Wikipedia resources about it.

Wikivoyage: GeoScheme Region Travel Guide – Another Wikimedia project, Wikivoyage is built in collaboration by volunteer authors from around the globe who write without pay, with the spirit of sharing knowledge that makes travel so enjoyable. Whenever travellers meet each other on the road, they swap info about the places they came from and ask questions about places they’re going. Wikivoyage wants to make it easy to share that knowledge and let others share it.

Geographic Information Knowledge Resource Links
These are links to selected ‘core’ official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ geographic knolwedge resources about the about the macro geographic region / sub-region. It is a mixture of…

Static Map Libraries – Collections of human created cartographic image files that can be downloaded and viewed offline.
Online Mapping Services – Automatically generate maps, often with different ‘layers’ of related geographic features that can be turned on or off and additional useful geographic tools (eg. route finder). These can usually only be accessed via a live internet connection.
Spatial Data Repositiories – Containing data files of computer-readable geographic information for use by anybody with the right specialised (‘GIS’) software. As well as being downloadable files, they may also be available as a feature service that is streamed directly to your application using an API.

Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Portal – Discover and access over 400 million data and information earth observation resources via this portal. Use the ‘Advance Search’ feature to select a continent or country from the drop down menu, and then datasets, themes and time windows.

Google Earth: Region – Links to a regional view on the web version of the popular program that maps the Earth by superimposing satellite images, aerial photography and GIS data onto a 3D globe and undertake their own projects.

Google Maps: Region – Link to Google Map map centred on the region, with the regional border highlighted and the ‘Google Maps Side Pane’ of further information such as links to external knowledge resources about the region like Wikipedia.

UN Geospatial General Map Library: Region – United Nations Geospatial provide expert support and geospatial data products and services – General maps, Web-services, Thematic analysis & maps, Earth observation & imagery, and Archives – to the many bodies and missions of the UN.

Wikimedia Commons – Atlas of the Region – The Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps compiled by the Wikimedia Commons project. There are sub-atlases for all regions.

Note(s)
i) Not all of the above resources will exist for all UN Geoscheme regions / sub-regions (especially the latter, whose geographic definition can be used more loosely by different people / organisations.

Internal Navigation Links

Internal hyperlinks enable users to quickly jump from one branch to another without any of that tiresome scrolling & expanding, or searching i.e. internal navigation.
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The following internal links are attached to this seed branch…

Between Regions and their Intermediary / Sub-Regions – Attached to Macro-Geographic Region seed branches there are internal links to all it’s sub-region seed branches i.e. ‘down the tree hierarchy’ only. On intermediary region / sub-region seed branches there are internal links ‘up the tree hierarchy’ to the ‘parent’ region seed branch, and down to all it’s country sub-branch seed branches.

Quick Links Branch – All the region, sub-region and country seed branches have an internal link back to the ‘parent’ Quick Links branch. From there users can get to any other area seed branch by internally navigating to it’s linking branch within the Quick Links alphabetic structure, including back to the branch they ‘jumped’ from.

Note(s)
i) Internal links may not be reciprocal – though a link may take users to another branch in the map, there may not be a reciprocal internal link attached to it that takes you back to the branch you ‘jumped’ from. It all depends on the nature of the relationship and why the link was added in the first place – some may just be to get you to related content rather than internal navigation.

UN GeoScheme Macro Geographic (Continental) Intermediate / Sub-Region Seed Branch

The knowledge resources listed below are by and large the same as for the Macro Geographic Regions above, athough there are usually fewer of them for sub-regions, and there is more ambiguity as to their definition in different sources.

UN GeoScheme Macro Geographic (Continental) Sub-Region Seed Branch

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

Image: Thumbnail Location Map
All maps shows the coloured rsub-region within an otherwise greyscale world map with individual country borders. Each region & sub-regions have distinct but common colour schemes e.g. all AFRICA sub-regions are green.

ii) All images used in our maps are always optimised to minimise the file sizes.

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…

UN GEOSCHEME REGION NAME

(Official UN GeoScheme Code)

Embedded Data Fields: Region ‘Facts & Figures’’
Single data fields embedded in the seed branch are another unique MindManager feature. They provide quick reference of useful stats, saving the user the time and effort of looking them up in the linked knowledge resources. These are taken from the official UNdata stats where available, or the CIA World Fact Book, or Wikipedia.

The data fields embeded in this seed topic are…

SUB-REGION ALL Countries – Subtotal of all ISO3166-1 official countries in the region.

SUB-REGION Sovereign States – Subtotal of all ISO3166-1 official sovereign states in the region.

SUB-REGION Non-Sovereign States – Subtotal of all ISO3166-1 official non-sovereign states in the region.

SUB-REGION Surface Area (sq km) (2020 est. UN) – As given in the UNdata stats

SUB-REGION Population (2020 est. UN) – As given in the UNdata stats, estimated to the nearest 1000

SUB-REGION Pop Density (per sq km) (2020 est. UN) – As given in the UNdata stats (ie. not calculated by us from the Surface Area and Population data)

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

ii) Data fields are like single cells in spreadsheets..

The data can be numeric or text.
Numeric data values in fields can be calculated from other fields, either in the same branch or in other branches in the map. Formulas that define the values are built using MindManager’s unique ‘Autocalc’ feature.
The values in data fields may be used to control aspects of the visual formatting (eg. colour or shape) of the seed branch using Mindmanager’s ‘Smart Rules’ feature (again unique).

iii) 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.

iv) UN data is taken from the official UN Statistics Division (UNData) regional data statstics. These are updated and published online annually.

Index Marker Tags & Groups: Various
Arranged in groups and attached to branches as required, index marker tags…

provide additional contextual knowledge about the seed branch, visiable to all users.
enable dynamic filtering of the map content to only show / hide branches that have been tagged with the selected marker

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

GEO – UN Geoscheme – Sub-Region is tagged with it’s own tag from the Geoscheme tag group, which may also be used on other branches in the map.

GEO – REGION – 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.

Note(s)
i) 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) 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.

Attached Hyperlinks: Multiple
See next section for full details

UN GeoScheme Macro Geographic (Continental) Sub-Region Seed Branch

One of our philosophies at KnowledgeMappers is not to reinvent the wheel. whenever possible. Thus we include hyperlinks to original official / definitive / plain old useful knowledge sources whenever possible, as well as links to Wikipedia pages for additional, “bigger picture” context (often not obvious, or even absent from, the original source). By doing this…

original sources get used more often, by more people.
errors get spotted quicker, thereby improving the information quality for everybody.
updates get promulgated sooner to end users.
rather than us having to interpret original sources to create further information resources around “big picture” context for a subject we are not experts in, users of our map can “get it straight from the horses mouth” as it were, so everybody benefits.

.
The following knowledge resource links are attached to this seed branch (arranged in alphabetical order within the groupings)…

General Information Resource Links

UNdata Stats – Official statistics about the sub-region compiled, published & maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNdata).

Wikipedia Category: GeoScheme Sub-Region – List page of all sub-region related categories.

Wikipedia: United Nations GeoScheme For Sub-Region Page – This is the Wikipedia article specifically about the UN Geoscheme sub-region and the list of ISO3166-1 countries within it..

Wikipedia: GeoScheme Region Page – This is the main Wikipedia article summarising the climate, geography and demographics of the sub-regions as general geographic areas (equivelant to a’country page’ article). There may also be a section on the countries within the sub-region in differing classification systems used by other international organisations.

Wikipedia: GeoScheme Sub-Region Portal – Wikipedia Portals are another useful entry-point that help readers and/or editors navigate their way through Wikipedia topic areas, promote content and encourage contribution. They may be associated with one or more WikiProjects, such as those concerned with gathering & publishing the information related to each country on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia: GeoScheme Sub-Region Outline Page – An introduction to the region structured as a series of hierarchical lists of links to essential Wikipedia resources about it.

Wikivoyage: GeoScheme Sub-Region Travel Guide – Another Wikimedia project, Wikivoyage is built in collaboration by volunteer authors from around the globe who write without pay, with the spirit of sharing knowledge that makes travel so enjoyable. Whenever travellers meet each other on the road, they swap info about the places they came from and ask questions about places they’re going. Wikivoyage wants to make it easy to share that knowledge and let others share it.

Geographic Information Knowledge Resource Links

UN Geospatial General Map Library: Sub-Region – United Nations Geospatial provide expert support and geospatial data products and services – General maps, Web-services, Thematic analysis & maps, Earth observation & imagery, and Archives – to the many bodies and missions of the UN.

Wikimedia Commons – Atlas of the Sub-Region – The Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps compiled by the Wikimedia Commons project. There are sub-atlases for some but not all sub-regions.

Note(s)
i) MindManager has the unique ability to have multiple hyperlinks attached to a single map branch, and to edit the default title text of the link to make it more meaningful to the user. This…

greatly reduces the visual clutter of the map.
means a full basket of links to official / definitive / useful knowledge resources about the subject can stay with the seed branch if it is re-used in other maps.

The chain icon at the end of a branch (rather than the favicon (icon) served by the linked-to website) indicates where a branch has more than one hyperlink.

ii) In the circular knowledge economy way of Wikipedia if there is knowledge that you could add to an existing page that is linked to, or even starting a page that doesn’t yet exist, then go for it! That’s what it’s all about!

iii) Not all of the above resources will exist for UN Geoscheme regions / sub-regions.

ISO3166-1 Country Of The World Seed Branch

Although there is no universal agreement on the number of ‘countries’ in the world (since a number of states have disputed sovereignty status), there is a longstanding international standard – ‘ISO3166: Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions’ – and so that is the basis on which a ‘country’ is included in the atlas. Which macro-geographic sub-region (and therefore region) it is assigned to, is defined by the United Nations Geoscheme (M49) standard.

However even within ISO3166 all ‘countries’ are not created equal. The main division is whether a country is sovereign or not i.e. it has complete control over all it’s internal affairs, it’s dealings with other countries and, most crucially, is recognised by all the other sovereign states. Thus of the 249 ‘countries’ defined by ISO3166-1, there are…

192 Sovereign Sates (classed as ‘independent’ in the standard)
57 Non-Sovereign Countries (classed as ‘not independent’ in the standard)

The major difference between them in geo-political terms is that ‘Non-Sovereign Countries’ cannot be a member state of the United Nations, but they do always have a dependent relationship with a sovereign state, who will at the very least represent them in international affairs. However the nature of that relationship differs greatly…

Some are considered as integral parts of the sovereign state which happen to be overseas (even if it’s a completely different continent).
Some are overseas territories (i.e. ‘posessions’) of the (usually european) sovereign state, left over from the age of colonial empires. Even then there are different ‘types’ of territory, even for the same sovereign state.
Some – usually small island states – are in ‘free asociation’ with a much larger sovereign state.
Some may be ‘permanently uninhabited’ so the ‘relationship’ is somewhat one sided (though that term does not proclude the presence of miltary bases, research stations or wildlife reserves with their associated personnel).

Thus to help users we have visually differentiated between the 2 country ‘types’ within this map – ‘Non sovereign countries’ have an asterisk* after their name (including in their coresponding index marker tag), and the knowledge seed branch text is in italic.

ISO3166-1 Country Of The World Seed Branch

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

Branch 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)’)

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

ROUNDED RECTANGLE = mixed coastal & Land borders

Note(s)
i) Assignment of shapes to geographic area seed branches is controlled by MindManager’s unique Smart Rule feature using the ‘GEO – Country – Borders’ tag (equivelant to thematic mapping in GIS).

Image: Country Flag & Thumbnail Location Map
Incorporating country flags into map branches makes for swifter navigation and improved user experience.

Note(s)
i) Flag images are a free download from the good people at Icondrawer.com.

ii) All map images are optimised to reduce the file size.

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) An * asterisk after the short name and italic font indicates the country is a non-sovereign state. The formatting is controlled by the attached ‘GEO – Country – Sovereign Status’ tag using MindManager’s unique Smart Rules feature.

ii) 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).

Embedded Data Fields: Country ‘Facts & Figures’
Single data fields embedded in the seed branch are another unique MindManager feature. They provide quick reference of useful stats, saving the user the time and effort of looking them up in the linked knowledge resources. These are taken from the official UNdata stats where available, or the CIA World Fact Book, or Wikipedia.

The data fields embeded in this seed topic are…

Surface Area (sq km) (2020 est. UN) – As given in the UNdata stats

Population (2020 est. UN) – As given in the UNdata stats, estimated to the nearest 1000

Pop Density (per sq km) (2020 est. UN) – As given in the UNdata stats (ie. not calculated by us from the Surface Area and Population data)

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

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

Land Border Countries – The number of countries the country shares land borders with, as given in the CIA World Fact Book.

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

UN Member State since – Date on which the country joined the United Nations.

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

ii) Data fields are like single cells in spreadsheets..

The data can be numeric or text.
The values in cells can be calculated from other cells either in the same branch or in other branches. Formulas that define the values are built using MindManager’s ‘Autocalc’ feature (again unique).
The values in data fields may be used to control aspects of the visual formatting (eg. colour or shape) of the seed branch using Mindmanager’s ‘Smart Rules’ feature (again unique).

iv) UN data is taken from the official UN Statistics Division (UNData) regional data statstics. These are updated and published online annually.

Index Marker Tags & Goups: Various
For additional contextual knowledge and dynamic map filtering…

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

GEO – Country (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.

GEO – Country – Sovereign Status – Either a sovereign state or non-soverign state.

GEO – Country – 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

GEO – Country – Shared Land Borders – The countries the country shares land borders with, as given in the CIA World Fact Book.

GEO – Country – 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

Note(s)
i) 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) 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.

Attached Hyperlinks: Multiple
See next section for full details.

ISO3166-1 Country Of The World Seed Branch

original sources get used more often, by more people.
errors get spotted quicker, thereby improving the information quality for everybody.
updates get promulgated sooner to end users.
rather than us having to interpret original sources to create further information resources around “big picture” context for a subject we are not experts in, users of our map can “get it straight from the horses mouth” as it were, so everybody benefits.

.
The following knowledge resource links are attached to this seed branch (arranged in alphabetical order within the groupings)…

General Information Knowledge Resource Links

CIA World Fact Book: ISO3166-1 Country Profiles – Maintained regularly by the US Central Intelligence Agency, the World Fact Book contains information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. The Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, a World Oceans map, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.

CIA World Leaders Directory: ISO3166-1 Country Pages – The US Central Intelligence Agency publishes and updates the online directory of Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments weekly. The directory is intended to be used primarily as a reference aid and includes as many governments of the world as is considered practical, some of them not officially recognized by the United States. Regimes with which the United States has no diplomatic exchanges are indicated by the initials NDE.

ISO3166-1 Online – The official entry for the country and it’s sub-division’s codes in the International Standards Organisation online standards portal.

United Nations – Website of the Member State Misson. Some are hosted by the UN, some by the country itself so they vary in style.

UNdata Stats – Official statistics about the country compiled, published & maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNdata).

Wikipedia Category: ISO3166-1 Country – List page of all country related categories.

Wikipedia: ISO3166-1 Country Page – This is the main Wikipedia article summarising the etymology, history, geography, administrative divisions, politics, economy, demographics & culture of the country. It also serves as a jumping off point to the many, more detailed Wikipedia articles on the country, as well as external sources on the web.

Wikipedia: ISO3166-1 Country Portal – Wikipedia Portals are another useful entry-point that help readers and/or editors navigate their way through Wikipedia topic areas, promote content and encourage contribution. They may be associated with one or more WikiProjects, such as those concerned with gathering & publishing the information related to each country on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia: ISO3166-1 Country Outline Page – An introduction to the ISO3166-1 country structured as a series of hierarchical lists of links to essential Wikipedia resources about it.

Wikivoyage: ISO3166-1 Travel Guide – Another Wikimedia project, Wikivoyage is built in collaboration by volunteer authors from around the globe who write without pay, with the spirit of sharing knowledge that makes travel so enjoyable. Whenever travellers meet each other on the road, they swap info about the places they came from and ask questions about places they’re going. We want to make it easy to share that knowledge and let others share it.

Geographic Information Knowledge Resource Links

GeoHack Index Of Global & Local Mapping Services: ISO3166-1 Country – Tool used by Wikipedia & other projects to access web mapping services centred on geographically referenced entities (such as countries of the world). As well as global services like Google Maps and Open Street Map, local services, such as those provided by national mapping agencies, are also listed.

Google Maps: ISO3166-1 Country – Link to Google Map map centred on the country.

Open Street Map: ISO3166-1 Country – Link to Open Street Map map centred on the country.

greatly reduces the visual clutter of the map.
means a full basket of links to official / definitive / useful knowledge resources about the subject can stay with the seed branch if it is re-used in other maps.

The chain icon at the end of a branch (rather than the favicon (icon) served by the linked-to website) indicates where a branch has more than one hyperlink.

iii) Not all of the above resources will exist for UN Geoscheme regions / sub-regions.

Hyperlinks to official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ knowledge resources found in the public domain is one of the main focus of our knowledge maps. Links are added to our maps in 2 ways…

Multiple Hyperlinks Attached To Seed Branches – MindManager has the unique ability to attach multiple hyperlinks to a single map branch. This means that…

maps need fewer branches so are less visually cluttered.
a single branch can become a mini knowledge portal in it’s own right (one of the reasons why we call them ‘knowledge seed branches’).
links to core knowledge resources (usually the most important links taken from the Link Collections) can remain with the branch when it’s re-used in other maps, whether or not it’s the kep focus of that map.

The multiple hyperlinks attached to the different types of knowledge seed branches in this map are already detailed in the ‘Seed Branches’ tab.

Knowledge Link Sub-Branch Collections – Sub-branches – each with a single attached hyperlink to an external knowledge resource – are grouped into related collections, such as ‘General Knowledge Resources’ or ‘Geographic Knowledge Resources’. This makes for easier, more ‘thumb friendly’ browsing & discovery of knowledge resources, which helps in more intensive activities like prolonged desktop research.

The knowledge link sub-branch collections in this map are detailed below…

General Knowledge Resources Link Collection

ISO3166-1 Countries Of The World

This collection contains links to official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ knolwedge resources about the ISO3166-1 country. It is an ideal starting point for those who want to find out more about about it, be it for casual browsing or more focused desktop research for a specific purpose…

BBC News: ISO3166-1 Country Profiles – Instant guides to the history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, which include audio and video clips from BBC archives.

ISO3166-1 Online – The official entry for the country and it’s sub-division’s codes in the International Standards Organisation online standards portal.

United Nations – Website of the Member State Misson. Some are hosted by the UN, some by the country itself so they vary in style.

UNdata Stats – Official statistics about the country compiled, published & maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNdata).

Wikipedia Category: ISO3166-1 Country – List page of all country related categories.

Wikipedia: ISO3166-1 Country Outline Page – Outlines are an introduction to the ISO3166-1 country structured as a series of hierarchical lists of links to essential Wikipedia resources about it.

Wikipedia: Index of ISO3166-1 Country-related topics – Each ISO3166-1 country is also a Wikipedia category, and this index page lists all the sub-categories and pages attributed to the category. Another good starting point for detailed, desktop research.

Wikimedia Commons: Index of ISO3166-1-Related Images & Media Files – Each ISO3166-1 country is also a category on Wikimedia Commons, the common media file (images, sound and video clips) repository for all Wikimedia projects (e.g. Wikipedia). The content listed on this page is in the public domain and freely-licensed for everyone to use, in their own language, you do not need to belong to one of the projects to use it.

General Note(s)
i) All knowledge resources linked to in our collections are freely available in the public domain.

ii) Not all of the knowledge resources listed above exist for all ISO3166-1 countries. This is especially true for non-sovereign states, which may be fully autonomous or semi autonomous from the home state, or may be a fully integrated part of it.

iii) Selected links from the General & Geographic collections are attached to the ISO3166-1 Country seed branch.

iv) All knowledge resource link collection sub-branches are tagged with the ‘RESOURCE – Owner’ index marker tag.

Geographic Knowledge Resources Link Collection

ISO3166-1 Countries Of The World

This collection contains links to official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ geographic knolwedge resources about the ISO3166-1 country. It is a mixture of…

Static Map Libraries – Collections of human created cartographic image files that can be downloaded and viewed offline.
Online Mapping Services – Automatically generate maps, often with different ‘layers’ of related geographic features that can be turned on or off and additional useful geographic tools (eg. route finder). These can usually only be accessed via a live internet connection.
Spatial Data Repositiories – Containing data files of computer-readable geographic information for use by anybody with the right specialised (‘GIS’) software. Asa well as being downloadable files, they may also be available as a feature service that is streamed directly to your application using an API.

The following knowledge sesource links make up the Geographic Collection for ISO3166-1 countries…

GeoNames: ISO3166-1 Country Page – Country main page on the GeoNames website, which lists various codes and statistics related to it along with a simple line map showing the sub-divisions. There are links to sub-pages for Administrative Divisions, Feature Statistics, Largest Cities, Highest Mountains, Other Country Names and Postal codes. The website is populated from the GeoNames database – which contains over 25 million geographical names, over 11 million unique features of 4.8 million populated places and 13 million alternate names. It is available for download free of charge under a creative commons attribution license. You can find out more here.

Google Maps: ISO3166-1 Country – Link to Google Map map centred on the country.

MapAction Map Library: ISO3166-1 Country – MapAction is a UK based charity that works across the globe to ensure disaster response teams have access to the life-saving maps and data needed to deliver the right aid to the right places, as quickly as possible. This link to their archive makes existing geographic information resources immediately accessible.

Open Street Map: ISO3166-1 Country – Link to Open Street Map map centred on the country.

UN Geospatial General Map Library: ISO3166-1 Country – United Nations Geospatial provide expert support and geospatial data products and services – General maps, Web-services, Thematic analysis & maps, Earth observation & imagery, and Archives – to the many bodies and missions of the UN. Note not all countries have maps in the library.

UNITAR Map Library: ISO3166-1 Country – The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) aims to develop the individual, institutional and organizational capacities of countries and other UN stakeholders through high-quality learning solutions and related knowledge products and services to enhance decision making and to support country-level action for overcoming global challenges. They have a growing library of geographic maps and data products produced in response to disasters & crises events around the world since 2004.

Wikimedia Commons Atlas Of The World: ISO3166-1 Country – The Wikimedia Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons.

Wikipedia Category: Geography of ISO3166-1 Country – Contains all sub-categories and pages about the geography of the country. A good ‘jumping off point’ for further armchair / desktop exploration…

Wikipedia: Geography of ISO3166-1 Country Page – The main article about the geography of the country…

General Note(s)
i) All knowledge resources linked to in our collections are freely available in the public domain.

iii) Selected links from the General & Geographic collections are attached to the ISO3166-1 Country seed branch.

iv) All knowledge resource link collection sub-branches are tagged with the ‘RESOURCE – Owner’ index marker tag.

Title: Countries Of The World – General & Geographic Atlas

File Name: Countries_ISO3166-1_Atlas_General

File Sizes: ?? MB (.mmap); ?? MB (.html)

Author: Knowledge Mappers Ltd.

SKU: #ID

Map Store URL: https://knowledgemappers.com/map-store/geography-based-atlas-maps/iso3166-1-countries-atlas-general/

Number of Branches (‘Topics’): ????

Number of Hyperlinks: ????

Number of Index Marger Tag Groups: ????

Number of Idividual Index Marger Tags: ????

Publication Date(s): ????

Language: English (UK)

Nationality: n/a

Geographic Level: Global – National

Time Base: Gregorian Calendar

Layout: Organisation Tree (ORG-TRE) map

Map Theme: Countries Atlas 2024

Created Using: MindManager 2024

Information Sources: CIA, UN, Wikipedia, Ma ain heid!

Countries Of The World – Base Atlas

**PRODUCT UNDER CONSTRUCTION – DO NOT CLICK** Visually structured framework of rich knowledge seed branches of UN Macro Geographic Regions & Sub-regions and ISO3166-1 Countries of the World that is the base for all our global atlas maps. Published Nov 2021

Price: £999.99

Countries Of The World – General & Geographic Knowledge Atlas

**PRODUCT UNDER CONSTRUCTION – DO NOT CLICK** As per the Base Atlas plus collections of sub-branches with single links to official / definitive / plain old useful General and Geographic knowledge resources about each ISO3166-1 country of the world. (Published Nov 2021)

Price: £999.99

Countries Of The World – International Travellers Knowledge Atlas (General Edition)

**PRODUCT UNDER CONSTRUCTION – DO NOT CLICK** Similar to the General Atlas but with a single sub-branch collection of links to official / definitive / plain old useful knowledge resources for international travellers to each ISO3166-1 country of the world.

Price: £999.99

Countries Of The World – International Trade, Aid & Sustainable Development Knowledge Atlas (General Edition)

**PRODUCT UNDER CONSTRUCTION – DO NOT CLICK** Similar to the General Atlas but with a single sub-branch collection of links to official / definitive / plain old useful knowledge resources about international trade, aid & sustainable development in each ISO3166-1 country and territory of the world.

Price: £999.99

Countries Of The World – International Travellers Knowledge Atlas (GB Edition)

**PRODUCT UNDER CONSTRUCTION – DO NOT CLICK** As per the International Travellers Atlas but with an additional sub-collection of links to official knowledge resources created specifically for GB (United Kingdom) citizens / organisations.

Price: £999.99

Countries Of The World – International Trade, Aid & Sustainable Development Knowledge Atlas (GB Edition)

**PRODUCT UNDER CONSTRUCTION – DO NOT CLICK** As per the International Trade, Aid & Sustainable Development Atlas but with an additional sub-collection of links to official knowledge resources created specifically for GB (United Kingdom) citizens / organisations.

Price: £999.99

As well as the definitive list of 'building blocks' of our world, our knowledge maps are a visually structured portal to all the official / definitive / plain old useful knowledge resources to be found about them in the public domain. All in a single shareable HTML file, viewable by anybody on any device with a browser. Not bad, ken?

Angus McDonald

Scotland The Map Project Director and Knowledge Mappers Founder & CEO