GE Digital Energyand Google signed an agreement allowing utility customers to access the Google Earth and Maps API to improve productivity and visualization. Editor in chief Joe Francica spoke with Bryan Friehauf, product line leader software for GE’s Digital Energy business, and Doug Daniels, head of GEO sales-America for Google about the announcement.

This got geoint? podcast, brought to you by trajectory magazine, features the publication of "Future U.S. Workforce for Geospatial Intelligence," a report released this week by the National Academy of Sciences. Keith C. Clarke of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and chair of the Committee on the Future U.S. Workforce for Geospatial Intelligence, joins us to discuss the main findings in the report, as well as to offer further perspective on the future of the GEOINT workforce.

Building Information Models, BIM, have changed the design-build-operate workflow many kinds of asset projects including those in civil engineering, urban planning and architecture. Editor in chief Joe Francica interviews Rich Humphrey, Autodesk's director of industry strategy and business development for engineering, natural resources and infrastructure about this change and BIM's impact on managing projects both large and small.

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.