Modern cities face many new challenges as a result of the ‘digital age’, in particular the uncertain promise of high urban benefits from the widespread use of communication technology in a smart city context. This essay introduces the theme of ‘Shared Spaces in Smart Places’, the connection between information technology and urban community. Just like 19th century industrial innovations, the new tools of the information age appear to be largely centripetal forces that boost the demand for urban proximity. But also like earlier industrial innovations, information technology has also disrupted shared urban spaces, such as downtown commercial districts that have lost customers to electronic vendors. Both this essay, and this special issue of Land Use Policy, emphasize the ways in which information technology can complement good land use policy and address both longstanding urban challenges at the nexus of digital tools and urban life as well as the new difficulties that have emerged during the information age.

作为“数字时代”的结果，现代城市面临着许多新的挑战，特别是在智慧城市环境中广泛使用通信技术所带来的高城市收益的不确定前景。本文介绍了“智慧场所共享空间”的主题'，信息技术与城市社区之间的联系。就像 19 世纪的工业创新一样，信息时代的新工具似乎主要是推动城市邻近需求的向心力。但与早期的工业创新一样，信息技术也扰乱了共享的城市空间，例如市中心商业区的客户流失给电子供应商。这篇文章和《土地使用政策》这期特刊都强调了信息技术如何补充良好的土地使用政策，并解决数字工具和城市生活之间长期存在的城市挑战以及出现的新困难在信息时代。