Dataset of the Day: North Korea Uncovered

Curtis Melvin‘s North Korea Uncovered gives the public a glimpse into a country typically shrouded in mystery and regulation. The Google Earth project displays information about anything from food and culture, to concentrations of mining operations and prisoner encampments, and even shows the locations of prisoner’s barracks and guard dining halls. Never before has the public been able to take such a look at North Korea thanks to Melvin’s efforts to harness the power of open-source data and mapping utilities.

We’ve broken down the original KMZ file into several kml files and uploaded them into Finder! to showcase just how much information has been collected about the country on various topics. Here are some samples of maps we’ve made from the data provided by Melvin’s project.

#maker_map_5776 {width: 100%; height: 400px;}

View full map

Maker.maker_host=’http://maker.geocommons.com’;Maker.finder_host=’http://finder.geocommons.com’;Maker.core_host=’http://core.geocommons.com’;
Maker.load_map(“maker_map_5776″, “5776″);

#maker_map_5788 {width: 100%; height: 400px;}

View full map

Maker.maker_host=’http://maker.geocommons.com’;Maker.finder_host=’http://finder.geocommons.com’;Maker.core_host=’http://core.geocommons.com’;
Maker.load_map(“maker_map_5788″, “5788″);

Another great way to view the data is to simply download the data as a csv from a layer in Finder!, sort based on any attribute and then make a map of that data. I made a csv of lighthouses from the transportation file. I sorted based on names with lighthouse in them, then saved as a new csv and uploaded it into Finder!

#maker_map_5784 {width: 100%; height: 400px;}

View full map

Maker.maker_host=’http://maker.geocommons.com’;Maker.finder_host=’http://finder.geocommons.com’;Maker.core_host=’http://core.geocommons.com’;
Maker.load_map(“maker_map_5784″, “5784″);

See what things you can come up with using Finder! and Maker! and enjoy the wealth of data available on Geocommons and uncovering North Korea for yourself.

Please visit Geocommons to view any of the maps/layers discussed above.
Lighthouse map: http://maker.geocommons.com/maps/5784?page=
Lighthouse layer: http://finder.geocommons.com/overlays/13232
Gulag map: http://maker.geocommons.com/maps/5776?page=
Gulag layer: http://finder.geocommons.com/overlays/13208
Agriculture/Horticulture map: http://maker.geocommons.com/maps/5788
Agriculture/Horticulture layer: http://finder.geocommons.com/overlays/13185