A city is more than her physical appearance. Issues such as demography, culture and mobility are equally important themes in the discussion and research about urban life. With the introduction of all digital resources at our disposal, from sensors and social networks to mobile devices, our ability to understand, use and design our cities, change considerably.

Technical innovation causes the boundaries between the virtual world and our cities to fade. More and more we see expressions of digital information in our cities like, for example, urban screens. On the other hand more information from the physical city is being collected by sensors and relayed to the virtual world. In particular, the growing role of physical location associated with digital information creates a new reality: The virtual and physical worlds are merging.

The design of cities traditionally was the domain of parties such as architects, municipalities and developers. In the new reality other stakeholders get the opportunity to participate therein. This applies for both designers from other fields (games, software, theater, film, commercial, etc.) as well for the residents.

These innovations, with their opportunities and their pitfalls, find more and more applications in our society, independant of one another. The methods we have to regulate these changes are subject to political considerations. Concensus can therefore often be long in coming. This creates an ever wider gap between the situation on which the regulation was based and the current reality. Privacy and copyrights are examples of fields where this dichotomy has become very clear. Now that geographical location has become a part of the virtual world, “place” might need protective regulation as well.

Current developments, force us to reflect on the profound effects that this development will have on our society. Interesting topics include privacy, security, standards of living, human behaviour, culture, sustainability and expression. Everyone has an opinion, now is the time to recognize that we all have a responsibility to proclaim it. The time has come that we can participate in the design of our city. Who would want to let that pass?!