6. Data, Properties, Smart City

This chapter introduces the concept of the third digital age, a development of the first and second ages, and focuses on the centrality of data in design and in urban processes. The topic of the platform is used to analyse the repercussions and risks typical of design spaces based on the centrality of data, especially from the point of view of those who possess and interact with big data. When IT is configured as a double parameter of influence on the city and on the design dynamics, ownership of data becomes a nodal point for the management of urban spaces and processes, whether they concern modelling or materialisation. Data collection methods play an important role in defining the enabling and inclusive value of ICT or, on the contrary, the risk of disabling, non-inclusive or limiting drifts. Lastly, it analyses the importance of the choice and organisation of datasets and algorithms capable of assigning proprietary organisations and related technologies the role of tool and not of decision-maker to big data, introducing the concept of human use of human beings (Wiener 1966).