Countries Of The World – GB International Travellers Knowledge Atlas
Countries Of The World – GB International Travellers Knowledge Atlas
This ‘GB (United Kingdom) Edition’ of our Countries Of The World – International Travellers Knowledge Atlas map contains additional ‘thumb friendly’ sub-branches with single links to official / definitive / plain old useful knowledge resources of specific interest to UK nationals travelling abroad for business or pleasure. These complement those that are already part of the international travellers base atlas, which include collections of general and geographic resources about each country of the world.
GB Travellers resource links include to all UK Embassies, Consulates, High Commissions (commonwealth countries) & Government Houses (UK overseas territories) as well as official UK Government advice on going and being abroad.
See the ‘Knowledge Links’ tab for a complete description of all single link sub-branches.
In our countries of the world atlas maps all the knowledge link sub-branch collections sit within the base framework of knowledge seed branches for each country – as officially defined by ISO-3166-1: Codes For The Representation Of Names Of Countries – arranged as sub-branches within an ‘org-tree’ base framework of seed branches of UN defined Macro Geographical (Continental) Regions And Sub-Regions. Seed branches are differentiated from other map branches by the rich range of visual knowledge elements embedded within, or attached to, them that provides a ‘base level’ of contextual knowledge & knowledge resource links about the subject (see the ‘Seed Branches’ tab for a complete description).
A bespoke product video for this countries of the world based knowledge atlas map will appear here soon. In the meanwhile, if you are you all sitting comfortably, we’ll begin…
13,284
Map Branches
16,027
Hyperlinks to Knowledge Resources
5
UN Geoscheme Macro Geographical (Continental) Regions
24
UN Geoscheme Macro Geographical (Continental) Sub-Regions
251
ISO3166-1 Countries
Description – Travel
This map adds a further collection of ‘thumb friendly’ knowledge links of use to international travellers to complement those already in our ISO3166-1 Countries Of The World – General & Geographic Atlas. This includes the country’s page(s) for it’s Wikipedia Portal, and sub-categories & main articles on Culture, Foreign Relations (including a list of all foreign diplomatic missions) & Transport, Wikivoyage crowd-sourced Travel Guide, and the World Meteoroloigcal Organisation World Weather Information Service.
In our countries of the world atlas maps all the knowledge link sub-branch collections sit within the base framework of knowledge seed branches for each country – as officially defined by ISO-3166-1: Codes For The Representation Of Names Of Countries – arranged as sub-branches within an ‘org-tree’ base framework of seed branches of UN defined Macro Geographical (Continental) Regions And Sub-Regions. Seed branches are differentiated from other map branches by the rich range of visual knowledge elements embedded within, or attached to, them that provides a ‘base level’ of contextual knowledge & knowledge resource links about the subject (see the ‘Seed Branches’ tab for a complete description).
United Kingdom Nationals: This ‘GB Edition’ of our ISO3166-1 Countries Of The World – Travel Knowledge Atlas map contains additional links to knowledge resources specifically produced by the UK Government for the benefit of UK nationals travelling abroad for business or pleasure, including to all UK Embassies, Consulates, High Commissions (commonwealth countries) & Government Houses (UK overseas territories), as well as Official Travel Advice and Living Guides.
Seed branches provide a ‘base level’ of contextual knowledge about the subject embedded within, or attached to, them in the form of…
- Image [Embedded] – Such as thumbnail location maps, flags, icons, people profile pictures etc., which provide a unique visual element that users can instantly latch on to as they navigate their way through the map.
- Branch Text [Embedded] – Rich (ie. variably formatted) branch text – such as names & unique identifying codes (taken from official sources) – is a unique MindManager feature.
- Branch Note [Attached] – Contains supplementary information with all the elements of a word processed page – variably formatted (‘rich’) text, tables and images.
- Spreadsheet Table / Chart [Embedded] – Containing contextual facts & figures, which can be toggled between table and chart view as appropriate (once again unique to MindManager).
- Multiple Single Data Fields [Embedded] – Another way of adding contextual facts & figures to the map (once again unique to MindManager), these are like single cells in a spreadsheet and the values can be used to format the topic.
- Index Marker Tags [Attached] – Arranged in groups and added to individual branches as appropriate, tags add contextual knowledge, enable map filtering and navigation.
- 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
MindManager provides an unparalleled range of ‘information cartography’ functionality that enables contextual knowledge to be embedded and attached to map branches in multiple ways…
Thumbnail Image: 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.
Title: 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 (M49) Code)
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.
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…
*REGION 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 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 Non-Sovereign States – Subtotal of all ISO3166-1 official non-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 Surface Area (sq km) (2020 est. UN) – As given in theUNdata stats
REGION Population (2020 est. UN) – As given in the UNdata stats, estimated to the nearest 1000
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
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 – 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 – See next section for full details
UN GeoScheme Macro Geographic Region (Continent) 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 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 Resources
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) 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.
UN GeoScheme Macro Geographic (Continental) Sub-Region Seed Branch
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…
Thumbnail Image: 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.
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.
Title: 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)
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.
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
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 – See next section for full details
UN GeoScheme Macro Geographic Sub-Region (Continent) 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 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 (eqivelant to thematic mapping in GIS).
Thumbnail Image: Country Flag
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.
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) 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).
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 & Goups
For additional contextual knowledge and dynamic map filtering…
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.
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
See next section for full details.
ISO3166-1 Country Of The World 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
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 Resources
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.
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.
Hyperlinks to official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ public domain knowledge resource is one of the main focus of our knowledge maps. Links are added in 2 ways…
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.
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 seed branches are already detailed in the ‘Seed Branches’ tab for each type present in the map. This knowledge link collections are detailed below…
United Kingdom Nationals: This ‘GB Edition’ of of our ISO3166-1 Countries Of The World – Travel Knowledge Atlas map contains additional links to knowledge resources specifically produced by the UK Government for the benefit of UK nationals travelling abroad for business or pleasure, including to all UK Embassies, Consulates, High Commissions (commonwealth countries) & Government Houses (UK overseas territories), as well as Official Travel Advice and Living Guides. See below for details.
General Knowledge Resource 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.
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 – 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.
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.
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 Resource 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…
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.
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.
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.
Travel Knowledge Resource 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 of use to those who travel internationally, be it for business or pleasure…
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.
Note(s)
i) If no Portal page for the country currently exists – as is the case for many non sovereign states and smaller countries – there will be a link to their Outline page, or failing that the country main article page.
Wikipedia Category: Culture of ISO3166-1 Country – Contains all sub-categories and pages about the culture of the country. A good ‘jumping off point’ for further armchair / desktop exploration.
Wikipedia: Culture of ISO3166-1 Country Page – The main article about the culture of the country.
Wikipedia Category: Foreign Relations Of ISO3166-1 Country – List page of all the Wikipedia sub-categories related to the ISO3166-1 country’s bi-lateral relationships with other countries.
Wikipedia: Foreign Relations Of ISO3166-1 Country Page – This is the main Wikipedia article summarising the ISO3166-1 country’s bi-lateral relationships with other countries. It also serves as a jumping off point to the many, more related Wikipedia articles on the subject, as well as external sources on the web.
Wikipedia: List Of Diplomatic Missions In ISO3166-1 Country – Wikipedia page handily listing all of the diplomatic missions – embassies & consulates – resident in the ISO3166-1 country. Listings exclude honorary consulates.
Wikipedia Category: Transport in ISO3166-1 Country – Contains all sub-categories and pages about transportation in the country. A good ‘jumping off point’ for further armchair / desktop exploration.
Wikipedia: Transport in ISO3166-1 Country Page – The main article about transportation in the country.
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.
World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) World Weather Information Service: ISO3166-1 Country – Operated by the World Meteorological Organisation, this website presents OFFICIAL weather observations, weather forecasts and climatological information supplied by National Meteorological & Hydrological Services (NMHSs) for 2955 cities in 139 members countries. Each country page contains…
- Tabular list of all available weather obervation locations provided by the NMHS, each of which can be added to the users own ‘favourites’ list.
- Links to their official weather service websites and tourism board / organization (if available).
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. At the very least though there should be a WikiVoyage entry.
iii) Specialised resource collections like this should be used in conjunction with those in the General & Geographic link collections, some of which are attached to the ISO3166-1 Country seed branch. The full range of links in these collections are to be found in the latest ISO3166-1 Countries of the World General & Geographic Knowledge Atlas.
iv) All knowledge resource link collection sub-branches are tagged with the ‘RESOURCE – Owner’ index marker tag.

ISO3166-1 Countries Of The World
The additional knowledge resources listed here are specifically produced by the UK Government for the benefit of UK nationals travelling abroad for business or pleasure…
UK Government Help & Services: ISO3166-1 Country – Summary page of links to services provided by the UK Government to it’s citizens if they’re visiting, studying, working or living in the ISO3166-1 country, as well generic links for travelling abroad. It also includes information about trading with and doing business in the UK and the country.
UK Government Diplomatic Presence: ISO3166-1 Country – Link to the UK Embassy / Consulate / High Commission / Government House page in the ‘Worldwide Organisations’ section of the UK Government website, containing contact details and links to social media. We have included links to Facebook and Twitter in the map if present.
Note(s)
i) An embessay may also cover one or more adjacent countries. This is especially true of small island countries in the Caribbean or the Pacific.
UK Government Foreign Travel Advice: ISO3166-1 Country – British people make around 50 million trips abroad during an average year. Almost all of these trips are trouble-free. But every year the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) helps tens of thousands of British nationals who have got into difficulty abroad. In many cases, these difficulties could have been avoided. FCDO travel advice helps to make sure citizens have a trouble-free time while abroad.
UK Government World Location News: ISO3166-1 Country and the UK – Official UK Government newsfeed of stories of interest to UK citizens interested in the country for travel or business.
UK Government Guide: Living in The ISO3166-1 Country – Advice for British people living in the country, including information & links on health, education, benefits, residence requirements and more.
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. At the very least though there should be a WikiVoyage entry.
iii) Specialised resource collections like this should be used in conjunction with those in the General & Geographic link collections, some of which are attached to the ISO3166-1 Country seed branch. The full range of links in these collections are to be found in the latest ISO3166-1 Countries of the World General & Geographic Knowledge Atlas.
iv) All knowledge resource link collection sub-branches are tagged with the ‘RESOURCE – Owner’ index marker tag.
New to our knowldge maps? Find out more below…
File Formats
We make our knowledge maps available to download in 2 file formats…
MindManager (.mmap) format for full featured viewing, amending and adapting using MindManager software. These can be imported into other ‘mindmapping’ software applications, but with caveats.
HTML5 (.html) versions of our maps (published using MindManager’s unique HTML export feature) can be viewed by anybody, in any modern web browser software, on any digital device, without the need for any software plugins, as stand-alone files or embedded in web pages, on(or off)-line (once dowloaded).
Find out more below…
MindManager (.mmap) maps are the original maps we create. Thus when opened in MindManager, all the features of the world’s best information mapping software are available for…
- full feature viewing…
- editing & amending…
- adapting & re-purposing…
MindManager is available for both Windows and Mac, with an Enterprise version that can be centrally installed on local area networks for users of 5 or more (eg. integrates with Microsoft SharePoint). There is also a free mobile app for Android.
A fully functioning 30 day free trial copy can be downloaded from the links. At the end of the trial period MindManager remains fully functioning, apart from the ability to save files. Thus it can be used as a free file reader for our knowledge maps in MindManager format.
HTML5 (.html) knowledge maps retain all the content – and most of the interactivity – of the original MindManager map (from which they are exported). For example they can be interactively queried by filtering using index marker tags to hide / show / highlight the coresponding branches.
And, just like any other html file, they can be …
- viewed by anybody, in any modern internet browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safara etc.), on or offline (once downloaded), on any device…
- shared by email or file sharing services (eg. DropBox).
- published online as stand-alone web pages, such that they have their own URL (which can be shared), or even embedded within existing pages (and hosted somewhere else eg. the aforementioned URL).
However HTML maps cannot be edited or ammended, or content copied and used in other maps.
Because MindManager was the first software of it’s type and has been the market leader for over 20 years, many other information software programmes (or online platforms) that have subsequently emerged have the capability of importing map files in MindManager (.mmap) format. A word of caution however…
Our maps fully utilise the large range of unique ‘information cartography’ features available in MindManager…
- large maps (1000’s of branches)
- ‘rich (ie. variable) formatting’ of topic text
- multiple hyperlinks attached to a single branch,
- embedded data features (spreadsheets, charts & topic properties)
- configurable sub-branch layout options for every branch within the one map
These features are not supported by other information mapping software programs. Thus even if your program can import a MindManager file, how it copes with each of these features, and what it renders on-screen as a result, will vary from the MindManager version so user beware!
HTML Maps
The fact that our knowledge maps can be published as HTML5 files – viewable in any modern web browser software, on any digital device, without the need for any software plugins, as stand-alone files or embedded in web pages, on(or off)-line – means they can be viewed & used by anybody!
However unlike MindManager users, almost by definition those who are using our HTML maps for the first time will be unfamiliar with the whole ‘knowledge map thing’ – what the different parts are, how you interact with it, how you acess the embedded / attached content (eg. accessing the multiple hyperlinks to knowledge resources, or filtering the map using marker tags).
That’s why we’ve produced the content (including short videos) below…
MindManager is the only information mapping software that can also publish it’s maps as HTML5 files…
HTML knowledge maps are…
Just about the same as the original – HTML versions of knowledge maps retain all the rich, visual content – and just about all the functional interactivity – of the original MindManager map. It’s also continually being developed. For example HTML maps can now be visually filtered using the index marker tags attached to branches.
A bit bigger – The file size of the HTML version of the map is about 40 – 50% bigger than the original MindManager (.mmap) file, depending on the type of content (the presence of lots of images is really what bumps up the file size no matter which file format).
Easily Viewed – Just as importantly HTML map files can be viewed…
- In any modern web browser software – Which is basically all of them – Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge etc…
- On any device – Desktop computers, tablets and smart phones (all of which come with browsers pre-installed!)
- Without the need for any software plugins – No need for additional bits of software to be downloaded and installed on your device in order to open and view your file properly,
- As standalone files or embedded in web pages – The .html file can be viewed as you would any other file downloaded from the web or file sharing service (eg. Dropbox), or sent as an email attachment – by double clicking on it on the device. However like a Google Map it can also be embedded within a frame on a web page and viewed without the viewer consciously downloading anything (the file still has to be physically ‘hosted’ on a server somewhere and ‘served’ to the page when viewed). An example would be our ‘map of maps’ is embedded in the footer of every page of this website.
- On-, or off-, line – Once the file – or the web page in which its is embedded – has downloaded to the device, there is no need for an internet connection in order for it to be viewed and interacted with. Obviously a connection is required to view the online knowledge resources linked to in the map, but the contextual knowledge contained in the seed branches of the map itself will be available.
‘Thumb Friendly’ – Easily interacted with on small touch screen devices such as mobile phones.
Find out more about map elements, basic navigation and some tips for viewing on mobile devices in the following sections…
We pack a lot of knowledge ‘bits & pieces’ into our maps, either embedded within, or attached to, the 100’s of map branches (‘topics’) that provide the visual structure that connects them all together. This video explains the different types of knowledge content.
Now that you know the different elements that make up one of our knowledge maps, this video shows the basics of navigating your way around it and accessing the hyperlinks to the public domain knowledge resources about the ‘building blocks’ of Scotland.
As stated already our HTML knowledge maps are “thumb friendly and viewable in any modern browser, on any device”. Here are a few extra tips to enhance your user experience if viewing maps on a small touch-screen device…
1) Vertical Scrolling Of Webpage – If your ‘scrolling thumb’ is anywhere within the embedded map window when it slides across the touch-screen, you will pan around the map rather than scroll the webpage as a whole. To counter this there is always a narrow margin around the map panel at the edges of the screen, which you can ‘drag’ to move the page. (Viewing the map full screen in a new browser tab also gets round this issue :-).
2) Activating Branch Content – Clicking on map branches will activate content. Notes & the list of attached hyperlinks will open up in a side panel in the browser window. On mobile phones this panel can be take up a disconcertingly large proportion of the screen. If you don’t want to access this content, just click on the map background away from the activated branch, and the panel will disappear.
3) Following Hyperlinks – If there is a single hyperlink on a branch then clicking on the favicon symbol at the end once will activate it and the web resource linked to will open up in a new browser tab. If the topic has multiple hyperlinks attached (another unique MindManager feature) then these can only be followed by clicking on the link in the list in the side panel that opens up within the browser window when the branch is clicked. Note that notes and hyperlinks are on separate tabs within the sidepanel if both are present. Hyperlinks are listed in the ‘Attachments’ tab.
Benefits Of Knowledge Maps
Our knowldge maps work on many levels…
- visually structured indexes of what ‘things’ exist in a defined ‘space’.
- visually structured index of knowledge resources about the ‘things’ available in the public domain.
- visually structured portal to said knowledge resources (discover & access with a couple of mouse clicks).
- visually structured source of rich contextual, ‘big picture’ knowledge about the ‘things’.
Find out more about the benefits they bring to users below…
Users of all our maps (HTML or MindManger) enjoy these benefits…
- Visual Register – Maps are the official / definitive list of what’s what, visually structured in a way that makes it easier to see what’s there and understand the context.
- Big Picture – See everything in the context of the bigger picture.
- Contextual Knowledge – MindManager’s many unique information cartography features – rich (variably formatted) text, embedded images, embedded spreadsheets / charts / data fields, attached index marker tags – enable much useful knowledge to be visually encoded in the map so users don’t even have to look up the linked knowledge resources in many instances.
- Fast Search – Even when a map has 100’s / 1000’s of branches & links, searching the content – in all the different ‘information channels’ that MindManager provides – is super quick.
- Knowledge Portal – Maps contain 100’s / 1000’s of single / multiple hyperlinks attached to the map branches, which means a virtual library of official / definitive / plain old useful online knowledge resources about the ‘things’ in the register is no more than a mouse click away. The visual structure of the map makes it easier to discover, assimilate and utilise the new knowledge eg. for desktop research.
- Interactively Query – Users can query the map using the filter function to hide / show branches based on the index marker tags attached to them (even the HTML ones).
- Share – As they are single files, maps can be easily shared as email attachments, via file sharing services, or as downloads. HTML files have the added ability to be pusblished as standalone webpages, or embedded in existing web pages.
- Print – Maps can be printed, in their entirety or in it’s filtered state. Printouts can be used as a visual prop to facilitate discussions and meetings amongst stakeholders, no matter how impromptu.
- Archive – Because the maps are an actual digital file (as opposed to a web page constructed from a database), they can be permanently preserved as a knowledge artefact by simply saving it in a digital archive. Obviously as time goes on the knowledge in the map will gradually be superceded and the URL’s for the linked resources therein may no longer work, however the knowledge that this was the big picture at one time and that these knowledge resources about it existed (and may still exist but now at a new URL?) will still be useful in the future.
Discovering knowledge is usually just the starting point. Once it has been understood & assimilated, users want to do things with it, depending on why they were looking for it in the first place. MindManager users therefore have further options available to them to take our knowledge maps to the next level for their own benefit…
- Living Document – As well as re-arranging the existing content to suit them, users are free to add their own, as and when they want, turning the map into their own living document. So for example users can add their own appointments & events (with links to files etc.) to our calendar maps, turning them into their personal diaries, after having first perhaps removed some of the content (eg. international events), or added another level of granularity using content from the time template map, to personalise it. Or if undertaking desktop research using our world atlas knowledge maps, they can selectively add the newly disocovered knowledge to the map as sub-branches and/or branch notes on the existing seed branch, which has the added beenfit of retaining the ‘big picture context’ of where it came from in the first place.
- Template Basemap – If your need to add / ammend your map with the latest knowledge is ongoing, then you can think of it in terms of a ‘basemap’, to which you are adding additional ‘layers’ of knowledge (just like ‘layers’ of geographic ‘things’ – points, lines, polygons, travel routes – on top of a geographic basemap from Ordnance Survey or Google). Once you have a basemap template, it is easy to re-purpose for many other uses without having to start from scratch each time.
- Content Source – Use any of the content of the map in other maps as appropriate. So not just whole branches withtheir sub-branches, but individuala embedded / attached elements like spreadsheets / charts, data fields, hyperlinks etc. This could be a simple, one off ‘copy & paste’, or creating a map part that is saved to your parts library so that it it is instantly accessible to be added to any map without recourse to the original source map.
- Index Marker Tag Source – This is especially true of groups of index marker tags, used to tag map branches. Thanks to the great MAP add-in from our partners at Olympic, a whole new group of marker tags can be created from a whole level of map sub-branches with a single mouse click. As our maps are usually definitive registers of ‘real world things’, our maps always contain those as a groupf of marker tags as well as branches. For example our world atlas knowledge maps contain tags for every country in the world (as officially defined by ISO3166-1), which can be used to ‘geo-filter’ the map ie. show only those branches tagged with a particular ‘geographic location.
Background
The origins of knowledge mapping, MindManager software and our own journey to creating the knowledge maps that we do, lies in the technique of ‘mind mapping‘, popularised in the 1970’s by by British popular psychology author and television personality Tony Buzan (though the use of diagrams that visually “map” information using branching and radial tree maps traces back centuries).
Find out more below…
The technique of ‘Mindmapping‘, originally pioneered by Tony Buzan in the 1970s, is a manual, graphical way of capturing, storing and working with information, and the thoughts, ideas and connections that it generates once it’s in your head, that works in harmony with the way your brain actually processes and stores it – that is in “branching” chains of associated concepts (literally ‘chains of thought’). In a “mind map” information is not stored in traditional “linear” lines, paragraphs and pages of text, but instead in discrete ‘chunks’, arranged around the central topic, connected together by lines that show the (often hierarchical) inter-relationships between them. This forms a branching structure, radiating out from the centre, which is why they are also known as “tree diagrams”. Text is minimal, a few words only that encapsulate the concep t or idea, but this is supplemented by the use of different colours, pictures, shapes and symbols so that the mindmap engages the whole brain, both in creating it and reading it.
The power of the mindmapping process is that, because your brain can literally see your thoughts and the relationships between them in front it as a picture, it can’t help but think of other thoughts and connections, which once added to the map, spark yet more thoughts and so on in a positive feedback loop. Thus a mind map is both a fundamental ingredient in the mental thought process, as well as a physical, tangible by-product of it.
Given the popularity of mindmapping, and the physical limitations placed on it through using a sheet of paper and pens, it was only a matter of time before somebody wrote a software program to create mindmaps on computer. MindManager was one of the first (version 1 was released in 1994 under the name “MindMan”).
Now we don’t care a jot about the arguments around whether or not mindmaps created by compter software are “real mindmaps” according to the rules of Tony Buzan. What we do care about is the power of the mindmap form – the tree diagram – as a visual knowledge framework for super efficiently recording, sharing and retrieving any sort of digital information (ie. not just thoughts and ideas generated inside your brain but also existing, published information about any subject), in way that works in harmony with the human brain.
Software adds several fundamental features to the information mapping process that are not described in the original scope and design of mind mapping:-
Unlimited editing & rearrangement – Maps can be endlessly amended, edited and rearranged within the software. In other words digital maps can be changed “at the speed of thought”.
Infinite canvas – Unlike a sheet of paper, the canvas in mindmap software has no edge. Thus it is possible to literally follow and record a complete “chain of thought” without the mental disruption of worrying about running out of space.
Infinite visual hierarchy – Likewise there is no limit to the number of levels of sub-branches that can be added to the map. At any level in the hierarchy however, the software allows you to collapse the sub-branches below so you can’t see them, and then expand them out again so you can. Thus it is possible to record effectively unlimited amounts of information down to the finest level of detail, but to hide the detail from view until required so that just the upper branches, which outline the “big picture” about the central topic in question, can still be seen in one view.
Digital integration with information sources – in the modern knowledge society information is digital and available on the internet, so by using software to map it there is the opportunity to connect the map with the information in ways not possible if the map is only on a physical sheet of paper. As you will see from the next point, the map can contain all the information about a subject (as is the case for traditional paper “mind maps”), or it can be a summary index that links to the actual content elsewhere. The analogy is with the table of contents at the start of a reference e-book, with the chapter / section headings linking through to the relevant content (which can be anywhere else and in any digital form). Because it is arranged in a tree diagram however, it forms a visual knowledge framework that can put information in context depending on where it is placed on the map. As with all maps that show the spatial relationships between things, this is in itself useful and valuable information.
Multiple information recording “channels” – You will have choice of ways for recording information in a digital map. As well as text and images visible on the branches of the map, mindmapping software allows you to record information as:-
– branch notes attached to the branch, which are visible in a side panel in the software. In Mindmanager notes are mini documents in their own right so can be formatted and stylised and contain tables and images.
– files “attached” to branches, which can be opened up by clicking on the icon on the branch. The appropriate software will then be fired up and the file opened within it (obviously the appropriate software must be installed on the device on which it it to be viewed).
– hyperlinks“attached” to branches to either files stored elsewhere or pages on the internet. Two of the unique features of MindManager in this respect are the ability to have multiple links stored on the one branch, and the built-in browser which allows you to view webpages in a panel beside the map without leaving the MindManager software environment.
– data tables and charts, just as you would have in ann excel spreadsheet (this ability is unique to MindManager).
Built in templates, icons and graphic images – MindManager especially comes with a large number of template maps already installed. These templates allow users to be guided through a process to create maps to fulfil particular purposes quickly and efficiently, even if they have never done it before. For example undertaking a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) analysis of their business / project.
Sharing The Map – It is much easier to share a digital file than a static image on a sheet of paper. At the very least digital maps can be shared with other users that have the same software that was used to create it. Most software will allow maps to be saved as a static image, but another of MindManagers unique features is the ability to save maps as interactive Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files, which can be viewed by anybody using the freely available Acrobat Reader. Though not editable, users can still drill down through the visual hierarchy of information by expanding and collapsing branches. This is done through a built-in feature of the Adobe Acrobat Reader so the end user does not need to install an additional plug-in or anything like that.
From initial thoughts & ideas, through plan of action to completed deliverable – Again in todays “information-age society” almost everything we do in terms of work is digital, especially if we are “knowledge workers” who must create / use / share a lot of information on a daily basis in order to do whatever is we want to do. Mindmapping software is an ideal digital tool to take you from defining the problem / project, through brainstorming a solution (how the problem will be solved / deciding on the project content), to a plan of action to deliver it (who is doing what, by when, with the resources available), to a dashboard that is visually telling you if everything is going according to plan! The key thing to note – and this is one of the “killer apps” of mindmapping software that saves you time and makes business processes so much more efficient – is that the final map produced by the end of each stage, is re-purposed as the starting point of the next one. The following examples illustrate this key point:-
– Authoring Digital Documents – If you need to produce some sort of digital information document, like a report or a presentation, plan out the broad structure as a map. Then flesh out the branches of the map with the content, the words and images, perhaps as notes. Mindmanager is especially good at enabling maps to be exported to other “linear” file types, like Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. However not only is the content exported, all the styling and formatting to make it look right can be too. Thus you can end up with a more or less finished file by doing all the work in MindManager, the same enviromnment in which the content was created.
– Better Meetings – Plan the meeting – the purpose, the venue & related logistics, the invitees etc, – using one of the built-in template maps. Spin off a comprehensive agenda map from this, complete with links to the relevant files and web pages (or embed the files within the map so that they are always avaiable, even offline). Send it to all the attendees beforehand and they will be much more engaged when they turn up. Have this agenda map on display friom the start and use it like a digital whiteboard to run your meeting. If you add to the map as you are going along, recording the key thoughts, ideas, proposals and responses, it will be the focal point around which everybody engages. Quickly move from planning to execution by assigning tasks, priorities, and deadlines right in the meeting map. Comments and decisions can be documented so everyone is prepared for next steps, and participants leave the meeting knowing what’s happening, who’s assigned to each task, and when action items are due. This final meeting map can be swiftly sent out as the post-meeting minutes. A link to this map can be added to your digital calendar as part of your digital archive. Ideally your calendar should also be a map so that it can serve both as a rolling archive of past activities as well as a diary planner of future ones.
– Problem Solving – define the problem in map form, capturing all the thoughts and ideas about it. Use the unrestricted map canvas to follow chains of thought as far as you want, then backtrack up your branches as far as you need and branch off in another direction. Or just put things anywhere on the canvas as discrete, as-yet unrelated elements. Whatever. The idea is just to record thoughts and any connections as fast as they are articulated. When the time comes, move into consolidation mode. Review what’s there, the overall structure, the substructure of the individual branches and chains. edit and re-arrange as necessary. Move the discrete elements into the map structure, even if it’s just in a “parked for now” branch. Organize and prioritize elements in a relevant way that boosts everybodys understanding and buy-in and gets you towards your solution. MindManager for example has a Guided Brainstorming feature to inspire new ways of thinking that drive you and your team to consider alternative approaches and solutions. Choose from predefined challenges and questions cards that help you categorize ideas and work through hurdles when you hit a mental roadblock.
– Project Planning – What is project management if not an exercise in anticipating a series of inter-related problems, resolving them and documenting the solution in the form of a plan that all particpants have “bought into”? Thus the next stage to transform a problem solving map into a project plan map is to assign tasks, resources and timeframes. Or again simply start with one of the many project management template maps included with the software. Visualize goals, validate requirements, intelligently manage resources and identify dependencies. Create and manage budgets in the project map alongside priorities and schedules (again MindManager has this ability built in to the map). If kept up to date in near real time, the map becomes a live project dashboard, where progress on individual tasks can be visualiy tracked against the deadlines that have been set, whilst not losing sight of the “big picture”. Quickly make adjustments when schedules and resources change. The task roll-up feature in MindManager shows the overall impact of changes to assignments and dependencies so that everyone can understand (and respond to) the implications of schedules and budgets. Integrated Gantt charts provide a timeline view of your schedule. Another essential feature of MindManager is the ability to export maps straight to Microsoft Project if that is what is required.
– Program Planning – More than one project to keep track of? A Project Program is a series of related projects that may be running in series or parallel. Again it is a logical extension of the previous 2 points (and a very straightforward process) to create a program dashboard map that links to all the individual project plan maps. Again MindManager has the ability to update this dashboard map in real time from the other maps.
Filtering the map based on content and properties of the content – Most business orientated mindmapping software allows you to use your map like a visual database by enabling you to query the map (technically known as “filtering”) on text string values and / or formatting elements (such as colour) and / or text or icon tags associated with the topic. This hides all the map content that doesn’t fit the selected criteria, leaving only the content that does. However because of the visual branching hierarchy the query results are instantly placed in a wider context. Also the filtered map can then be saved as a new map that can be used elsewhere. The queries can also be saved in the software to be repeated at any time in the future.
Other diagram types – “Mindmapping” software has gone beyond the simple tree diagram and most have the ability to create other visual diagram structures as well. For example Mindmanager allows users to create organisational diagrams, process maps, concept maps, swim lanes etc. The key thing with mindmapping software over other drawing software that could also be used to create such diagrams, is that they retain all the other advantages of digital mindmaps, especially the multiple channels for recording information. Thus information elements within these other diagrams can still have associated notes, multiple hyperlinks and attached files!
Anyway as you can see “mindmapping” software goes way beyond the technique of mindmapping as envisaged by Tony Buzan. It is a hugely vsersatile digital tool that enables you to do a lot of the everyday digital stuff you have to do anyway, but much quicker, easier and efficiently, allowing you to stay more in control of the whole information capture, understand and share process.
So much so in fact that we don’t like to call MindManager “mindmapping” software. We produce maps of information and information sources so it is “information mapping” software as far as we are concerned!
We use MindManager from to create our multi-level, multi-purpose, digital knowledge maps. First created in 1994 and now with over 2 million users worldwide, including over half of the Global 2000 and Fortune 500 Corporations’ such as Boeing, BMW, Ford, Hewlett Packard, KPMG, Microsoft, Motorola, Rolls Royce, & Siemens, Mindjet MindManager is the worlds leading information (“mind”) mapping software. We have been users since version 4 (MindManager 2002). 18 years later we are now up to version 21 (MindManager 2021).
There are plenty of free software tools out there if all you want to do is “mindmapping” on computer. However we haven’t found any other software to match the versatility of MindManager for the sheer range of easy-to-use – and often unique – opions and tools for…
- capturing information digitally “on the hoof”, either through manual, keyboard entry during solo / group brainstorming sessions, or by simple on-screen “drag and drop” with a mouse.
- importing existing information from other “standard” digital sources such as Microsoft Outlook, Excel and, for coporate IT setups, SharePoint.
- organising it into a visual framework, in other words a map or diagram. Not just a traditional “mindmap” ie. a radial branching tree, but organisations structure maps, right/left-only maps, flow charts, concept maps etc.
- combining (“mashing up”) information about the same subject from (sometimes radically) different sources into the one document that is effectively infinite in capacity but more compact and intuitive to navigate than traditional “linear” documents – “drill down, not scroll down!”. For example our biggest map to date, which maps all the pages in the websites of over 60 European Union bodies, has over 17,000 hyperlinks in over 18,000 branches – try getting that amount of information in a single, usable Word document 😉
- re-organising the map content quickly, intuitively, flexibly, organically, responsively, as you want so you stay in control.
- formatting the map with great information cartography tools to get the look and feel that you want eg. the ability to use your own, customisable image libraries.
- visualising information in different ways within the map eg. as embedded spreadsheets, charts etc.
- creating new information from existing information within the map using formulas and auto-calculation features that incorporate data from sub-branches (branches can also be formatted according to the value of the newly calculated data to aid visualisation).
- tagging map branches using your own or imported tags and groups of tags.
- querying your information like a visual database by filtering the map on text string values and/or formatting element and/or tag. Query results can then be saved instantly as a new map.
- re-purposing existing map elements to quickly use in other maps, either by simple copying and pasting, or as map parts which can be made available to all users in a library.
- hyper-linking to online resources, with multiple hyperlinks on a single branch and a built-in web browser so you never have to leave the MindManager environment to view the resources (one of our personal favourites 🙂
- exporting information to other “standard” formats such as Acrobat pdf, Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc.
- sharing your map so that others also have the benefit of discovering / accessing a huge amount of information in a more compact and intuitive to navigate – “drill down, not scroll down!”.
- presenting /publishing your map to make it easier to transfer knowledge and experience in a form that makes it easier for others to act upon it.
- adapting & extending the softwares capabilities via the API (Application Programming Interface) and macro writer to create bespoke solutions.
- enabling people and organisations to not just collect and organise information from a huge range of different sources into the one environment, but to assimilate it and act upon the inights it provides them to get the stuff done that they need to do, in a more productive way. For example the great project / task management tools and templates are used by project managers controlling multi-million dollar projects and project programmes around the world.
In addition there is a community of official Mindjet partners (such as ourselves) offering a range of value-added services and add-ons / plug-ins that greatly extend the functionality of Mindmanager, which is already pretty awsome anyway!
All of these mean MindManager is a hugely flexible, digital information tool that provides practical, focused, low-cost solutions to help people and organisations stay on top of their information and ideas, and get a lot more done with a lot less stress… 🙂
Where it began…
Once we seriously began using MindManager – the world’s best information mapping software – as a business mindmapping tool back in 2002, we soon realised we could also use it in a way that complemented our geographic information mapping work. We could…
- Map geographic space in a different kind of way – By capturing geographic entities as branches in a MindManager ‘tree diagram’ map from definitive source spreadsheets, we created a visually structured, digital framework that, just like a ‘traditional’ geographic map, not only recorded the different entities that made up ‘the space’, but also the hierachical relationships between them.
- Map knowledge resources about the space – By attaching (often multiple) hyperlinks to public domain knowledge resources about the entities to their branch in the map – be they official, definitive or just plain old useful – they become both more easily discoverable within the ‘bigger picture’ context of the whole map, and more easily accessible as they are only ever no more than a couple of mouse clicks away. So as well as being a visually structured index of knowledge resources about the ‘things’ in the ‘space’, our map was now also a portal to those resources.
- Incorporate contextual knowledge – Using MindManager’s many unique ‘information cartography’ features (see above), some of the core information contained in the linked resources could be embedded within, or attached to, the map branches – such as images of ‘traditional’ geographic maps (eg. location maps) or basic geo-statistical data like size and population. The resulting ‘knowledge seed branches’ are mini knowledge portals in their own right, and can often negate the need to consult the linked resources for basic information.
A different kind of geographic world atlas
We decided to begin applying this new knowledge mapping technique to the fundamental building blocks of ‘geographic space’ – the countries of the world and the macro-geographic regions and sub-regions in which they sit. So we…
- Started with the data tables for the international standards that define these things – UN Geoscheme (macro-geographic regions) & ISO3166-1 (countries) – and imported the appropriate fields into mindmanager to create the basic framework.
- We then hunted down all the official / definitive / plain old useful knowledge resources about them we could find in the public domain online, and attached their URL’s as hyperlinks to the appropriate map branch.
- Finally we applied a bit of cartographic know-how.
And so (to cut a long research & development story short) we created our first countries of the world knowledge atlas map…
But with important similarities
New and exciting though this new type of atlas was, we realised that our knowledge maps still shared important characteristics with ‘traditional’ geographic maps…
- A map is it’s own ‘type of knowledge’ – A map – the visually structured index of what things are where and how they inter-relate within the space – is a type of knowledge in it’s own right. It’s not a pure picture, and it’s not just words, rather it’s a carefully, and scientifically calculated, combination of the 2.
- A map is a knowledge artefact – Geographic maps have 2 lives… The first is as a working document that shows ‘the space’ now. However the world moves on and spaces change, so the map then becomes a historical record of what the space looked like at a particular point in time. Traditional (ie. paper) geographic maps were physically archived in libraries, so they could be consulted by future generations. Online mapping services like Google Maps however are constantly being updated to always show the most current picture, and anyway aren’t a discrete artefact that can be stored but are assembled from databases on demand to the viewer. Because MindManger maps are a software file, they can be saved and archived.
- A map as a ‘basemap framework’ – Most of us at some point have taken a geographic map and drawn our own information on top it to quickly communicate information to others – how to get to our house / the hotel etc. (though these days Google Maps will do that automatically for you to show you the driving route between 2 points). In such cases the geographic map is acting as a ‘basemap’ – a visual knowledge framework upon which additional, more specialised, content could be added that would be difficult to interpret if the basemap wasn’t there. Well we realised that our general knowledge atlas map could be used as a basemap to create all sorts of different knowledge maps about the countries of the world.
A different kind of calendar (‘time atlas’)
Intrigued, we applied the same technique to the humble calendar – the atlas for ‘time space’ – and, to cut a slightly shorter research & development story short – our calendar knowledge maps were born…
(These also crossed over to the ‘geographic space’ when we added links to the national days of every country of the world, as well as calendars for specific countries…)
Map Any ‘Space’
Thinking further we realised there’s plenty of ‘things’ in the world of human endeavour that are real, and important, and have hierarchical (and other) inter-relationship with other real, and important things – organisations from governments (national to local) and public bodies, to corporations to community groups, to informal networks, in fact networks, people and organisations of any type and the ‘spaces’, economic spaces. Such spaces can’t be mapped geographically, or even if they can, mapping them only geographically doesn’t add much to our practical knowledge about them. An ‘organisation map’ is an obvious example of such a non-geographic knowledge map.
In fact we soon realised that, using this new visual mapping technique , we could map pretty much capture any ‘space’ of human interest and endeavour – be it physical, virtual, conceptual or whatever – as a MindManager map…
Share It With Everybody, Even If They Don’t Use MindManager
Anybody with access to MindManager software can use our knowledge maps as ‘ready made’ templates to amend, adapt & repurpose (in whole or in part) in their own projects, so they do not have to re-invent the knowledge wheel each time.
However thanks to MindManager’s unique HTML export capabilities, the HTML versions of our knowledge maps can be accessed by anybody using any modern browser, on any device, on or offline, without the need for any plugins ie. everybody!
Save Everybody Time & Resources
In these days of information overload we also realised that our knowledge maps could help people – and the teams, organisations and communities of which they are part – more quickly and easily answer the basic questions about ‘the spaces’ that they spend a lot of their time & resources trying to find answers to…
- What are the important ‘things’ that make up this ‘space’ we are interested in?
- What is the ‘spatial’ / hierarchical relationship between them?
- What do we know about them?
- Where are those knowledge resources to be found?
- How do we access them now – and in the future – so we can use them to benefit our organisation / community / project?
By discovering & accessing the knowledge they need more quickly (and with a lot less stress :-), they could spend their precious (and usually limited) time & resources actually utilisng it to do what they need to do, rather than scrolling through endless search results (assuming they knew what to look for in the first place of course).
Let’s start a map store
And so we opened our digital download map store so that anybody can benefit from the ‘universdally useful’ knowledge maps of our world we create, and began offering our knowledge mapping services to map ‘spaces’ on behalf of clients as well as help them to do it for themselves…
Browse the other maps in our Geography-Based (Atlas) category below, or return to the store home page.

Countries Of The World - General & Geographic Knowledge Atlas
Countries Of The World - General & Geographic Knowledge Atlas

Countries Of The World - International Travellers Knowledge Atlas
Countries Of The World - International Travellers Knowledge Atlas

Countries Of The World - GB International Travellers Knowledge Atlas
Countries Of The World - GB International Travellers Knowledge Atlas

Countries Of The World - International Trade & Development Knowledge Atlas
Countries Of The World - International Trade & Development Knowledge Atlas

Countries Of The World - GB International Trade & Development Knowledge Atlas
Countries Of The World - GB International Trade & Development Knowledge Atlas
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