Author Simon Garfield loves maps. His home in London is full of them — that's where they're stocked, hanging on walls and piled on shelves. So when Garfield was looking for a new topic to write about, not surprisingly, maps won out. His new book is called On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Works.

"The pace at which organizations are adopting and mandating BIM is accelerating very rapidly," said Mike DeLacey, president of Microdesk, an architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) consulting firm specializing helping owner/operators in applying technology to the design and construction process from GIS to CAD. Editor in chief Joe Francica spoke with DeLacey about the adoption rate of building information models (BIM) and how it is helping to save money, not just in design but the eventual operations and maintenance of buildings, roads and other infrastructure. Here are some of the questions that DeLacey addresses: 1. Can you give a brief background on Microdesk and the services you offer? 2. How would you characterize the move from CAD to GIS and does it matter which platform is used? 3. How is the transition going to 3D and BIM? Has it been difficult for users? 4. What is the upfront cost of making the transition to BIM? 5. Are you seeing BIM being stipulated more in RFPs? 6. What database concerns are necessary for users to consider? 7. How does cloud computing impact the adoption of BIM? 8. How does cloud computing impact the business model of a company like Microdesk that has been a long standing reseller of Autodesk software? 9. Are users ready to move to the cloud?

From ancient Babylonia to the Renaissance, mapmakers have been driven by politics, religion, emotion, and math. In his new book, A History of the World in Twelve Maps, professor Jerry Brotton examines the construction of a dozen world maps throughout history and argues that world maps are no more objective today than they were thousands of years ago.

This week on WNYC's New Tech City, host Manoush Zomorodi speaks with Steven Romalewski, director of the Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center, about mapping before and after Sandy. Plus, a visit to the map room at the New York Public Library. Cartographers there are working with NYPL Labs to put old maps online and make them useable in the digital age thanks to a process known called "map warping."

The New York-based Justice Mapping Center has been providing those kinds of visuals [maps of blocks of many convicts] for more than a decade. By mapping the residential addresses of every inmate in various prison systems, the center has made vividly clear a concept it calls "million-dollar blocks" - areas where more than $1 million is being spent annually to incarcerate the residents of a single census block.

Editor in Chief, Joe Francica, spoke with Tomas Larsson, marketing director, Trimble Survey and Maarten Vandenbroucke, president, Gatewing, the provider of the X100 unmanned aerial vehicle about unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for an inside look at the applications and the equipment. Trimble recently bought Gatewing and listeners will find this interview especially useful as the market is set to rapidly expand.

With the impending merger of DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, Dr. Walkter Scott, Founder, Vice President and CTO, DigitalGlobe sat down with Editor in Chief Joe Francica to provide his views on where the company is headed, the budget situation in Washington and the technical advantages of the WorldView constellation.

This summer, the Arctic ice cap shrank--melted-to an all-time tiny size. Half what it was in 1980. The planet is changing. We explore. Guests: David Robinson, climatologist and professor in the department of geography at Rutgers University. Walt Meier, research scientist at the National Snow & Ice Data Center, which has been measuring the Arctic sea ice cover since 1979.

To understand many of the triumphs, tragedies and conflicts in the world, geopolitical analyst Robert Kaplan says to look no further than a map. In his book The Revenge Of Geography, Kaplan argues that geography is central to understanding the history and future of world affairs.

ProPublica investigative reporter Peter Maass says cellphone companies monitor where we are, who we call, what we buy -- and often provide it to law enforcement when requested. "They are collecting a heck of a lot more information than we expect them to be collecting about us," he tells Fresh Air.