One thing I found interesting about this, besides just not knowing there was a big attempt in the 1940s-50s to compile a list of every factory in the world, is that I’m not 100% sure current open data even replicates it. Some parts, yes: data from OpenStreetMap can give you information on power plants, power lines, etc., at least in areas where they’re mapped. But it doesn’t include the kind of modeling of production that this old IBM punch-card system seems to have had, like the inputs/outputs of each factory (composition and quantity), which ones were easily substitutable, labor requirements of each factory, etc. In the U.S. military’s case, those were useful for running simulations to determine points of strategic vulnerability that should be hit first, but there are all kinds of economic-simulation uses something like that could have, if open data were available.
One thing I found interesting about this, besides just not knowing there was a big attempt in the 1940s-50s to compile a list of every factory in the world, is that I’m not 100% sure current open data even replicates it. Some parts, yes: data from OpenStreetMap can give you information on power plants, power lines, etc., at least in areas where they’re mapped. But it doesn’t include the kind of modeling of production that this old IBM punch-card system seems to have had, like the inputs/outputs of each factory (composition and quantity), which ones were easily substitutable, labor requirements of each factory, etc. In the U.S. military’s case, those were useful for running simulations to determine points of strategic vulnerability that should be hit first, but there are all kinds of economic-simulation uses something like that could have, if open data were available.