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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.