Data, its collection and analysis is central to our understanding of place and space. The city is becoming a series of sensors, providing streams of information relating to its occupants' movements and use of space. These data streams, largely via the rise in the Internet of Things and social networks, are changing the way we view the city. At the heart of this is the local scale fabric of the city, building the backbone of a city's data infrastructure and joining up the data feeds via location. From its core functions, through to insights on the emotional level about how we perceive space, data is opening up new research directions for understanding the city and new tools for its analysis - the smart city. © Matthew Carmona and the contributors 2014. All rights reserved.