Cartographers of North Korea (2019)

pixelN

> we sent a letter to all of the contributors; here are the responses love this one: > Good afternoon. Please provide us a screenshot of these OSM map. Only know "Google Maps". Thank you.

LumJerliu

Maybe out of scope, but I find the site design here very calming for reading.

Spixel_

I love how the data is laid out. It's easy to read and shows real care. I expected to lose my current nav when I clicked on an individual response, so I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't.

willmeyers

Really good analysis and storytelling. I wonder what the distribution looks like for joke/troll contributions on OSM and what nations or places get vandalized the most?

lampiaio

Opened the link just because I've always been mystified by how detailed that region is, and it ended up being a fascinating read. One more reason why OSM is one of my personal 7 Wonders of the Internet.

ktallett

I wonder how things have evolved in the last decade as North Korea has tried to evolve quickly at least in Pyongyang and more people inside the country have access to tech than ever before.

kawsper

Lovely presentation of the data. I really liked reading the responses from the contributors, it was surprisingly interesting to read their personal motivations and stories.

layer8

This is super interesting, but I would vastly prefer a regular article with the relevant illustrations interspersed as static images.

jurf

Lovely presentation, but I’m not sure what they meant by the last note. It sounds interesting; it’s a shame they didn’t elaborate.

msla

It's a blank blue page.

tkgally

Side comment: North Korea seems to be allowing tourists to take videos fairly freely now, and some of those videos are appearing on YouTube. While the tourists' movements still seem restricted, the videos offer glimpses into life in North Korea I haven't seen before. For example: https://youtu.be/HQEYB4QWCjM https://youtu.be/d7m8hZ67Bz0 https://youtu.be/guZQNMEz9as

ByteAtATime

Super interesting read; I especially found this letter from "P791" fascinating: > Hi, Wonyoung, I map North Korea to help North Koreans.I select areas that look like they might be good points to escape. In particular, the detailed mapping around Phungso-ri (풍서리) is almost entirely my work.I mostly map along the Tumen River, both on the North Korean and Chinese sides. It is important to map the fences, roads, and towns on the Chinese side.

pella

This is a post from 2019 Edits of North Korea: https://osmstats.neis-one.org/?item=countries&country=North%... Current status: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=8/39.358/127.321

tobadzistsini

Now do Web Designers of North Korea with a better interface.

Bullfight2Cond

Very interesting analysis. There are many documentaries, but this one from a German filmmaker is unique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBqeC8ihsO8

cantrevealname

I'm fascinated to read about the motivations of people who do some much great work in places like OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia where it's almost guaranteed that they will get zero recognition (and obviously no money). I wanted to quote what the number 1 contributor (with 75,583 contributions) to the North Korea map said about his motivations: "Hello Wonyoung,I live in Germany. I also do a lot of mapping here-partly with a GPS-device. I use OSM-maps in my navigation system (OSMand) when i travel. Mapping is just a private hobby for me. Like others doing Sodoku or Mandala i draw rivers and roads from a satellite image. It just gives a good feeling to relax and contribute at the same time. Sometimes when i hear the news i wonder if the mentioned places are already mapped and take a look into OSM. Somehow i got stuck in North Korea. There was a blank map. So i could draw big roads and rivers. Here in Germany you only can do details, like junction restrictions or housenumbers. North Korea is really an interesting country. The political situation beween North- and South-Korea ist also very fascinating and has a lot of similarities to former East- and West-Germany. I live not far away from the former border (Iron Curtain) - on the east side. I have old maps here from cold war time with missing, wrong and falsified data. We dont need wrong maps if we want to live together in peace. Finally militaries always do have their own much more detailed maps. In North Korea i only use the OSM-aerial images (Bing, DigitalGlobe, etc). Of course i also watch documentaries about North Korea more interested now and i took a look into the Armistice Agreement-maps from 1953. OSM is a great Project. Like Wikipedia it creates free data from all countries, free for everyone! Im sure one day the maps will also find their way into North Korea. But for now it will help everyone else who is interested in this area anyhow. One example: I found reports from ornithologists researching migrating bird-routes and North Korea is one stop for the birds. As far as i can see North Korea is mostly mapped by people like me just travelling on the map with their fingers and contribute on interesting things. Nobody is really working systematic or regularly like professional mappers would do. I hope this text helps you. It would be great to get some feedback about the results of your studies. Best regards"

ButlerianJihad

Coincidentally, yesterday I just found this chestnut from "Half as Interesting" in 2019: https://youtu.be/L9Di-UVC-_4?si=kydtb0r5VETKJJOO Summary: in China, cartography is illegal without approval and a license. The maps that do exist are deliberately wrong. They are obfuscated by technical means, and therefore, by design, there are no accurate extant maps of China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_geographic_dat... For comparison: even South Korea! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_geographic_dat...