E-city: digital network and city of the future

E-city is an analysis by Paolo Fusero on the development of Information and Communication Technologies. It is a study that illustrates the innovations introduced by new technologies and the significant changes in urban planning and in future urban models. The planning of cities and territories is going through a transitional phase partly due to the advent of new technologies and the resulting “digital revolution”. Information and communica¬tion, which now permeate all aspects of social life, induce even substantial changes at all levels of activities, including urban functions and human relations. E-city describes these changes in three parts: e-Network, development of digital networks and territorial transformation processes; e-Planning, planning instruments and their innova¬tions related to ICT development; e-City, cities and territories of the future. The book adopts an innovative approach: not only the technological, sociological or economical aspects of the phenomenon, but rather the new urban models emerging from an information society that is increasingly geared towards globalisation. In the appendix, with a contribution from resear¬chers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, the reader will find some recent studies of the Senseable City Lab, on how ICTs help describe, understand, use and plan the cities of the future.