I remember when I was working on a country list for my old employer and realizing there is no one list of countries. As Tom noted, there's an ISO list, and as someone else noted, a UN list. You can also throw in postal standards for probably a third view.

Thinking out loud, without reference, what if we had a country category that captured something like: Historical, Current, Disputed. Historical meaning it was once a county but no longer is (I'd probably include empires of the old days, like Roman Empire). Current would be anything that is ISO and UN. And Disputed could cover what is on one list but isn't on another, or are disputed areas (like Kosovo).

This could help when we know something was a country but no longer isn't, and we don't know the end date. And it could allow folks to add in Disputed if they want.

Again, just thinking out loud/brainstorming. I think it would be helpful to write out our requirements so we can state them all together so we can have a new starting point. Otherwise we may go back and forth forever.

here's my lame attempt: - what was a country/nation/administrative area - what's agreed upon as being a current country - what isn't agreed upon as being a current country - when something was no longer a country - ???

evening

On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 11:26 AM, Tom Morris <tfmo...@gmail.com> wrote: