Even as urban theorists argue over which city is the world’ largest – Chongqing? Karachi? Tokyo? – there is one social nexus that has quietly and undisputedly overtaken them all. Facebook, with more than 500 million official users, is the planet’s most populous community, a living, breathing human sweatshop that displays all the memes of a physical city.

The internet supplies Facebook’s infrastructural guts; its information-sharing plumbing is built atop of Google’s search algorithms. The result is a dense matrix of commercial, cultural and social intercourse that is challenging the urban world for relevance. To the twittering masses that interact with each other through desktop terminals, laptops and mobile devices, Facebook is as much their home as their actual bedrooms.

However, this isn’t just virtual reality; the real and virtual urban worlds are increasingly interacting witheach other, of course. While Facebook devotees challenge each other to build simulated farms and byte-sized cities, and Foursquare users vie to collect enough points to become “mayors”, governments are turning their social media pages into virtual town halls. High-street stores now see their websites as far more than just promotional bookmarks displaying locations and opening hours; they are critical extensions of their business. Even transportation, the perennial bug bear of urban planners, has benefited, as cars start interacting with the virtual realm to improve fuel efficiency and determine the fastest route.

Indeed, it is hard to imagine how the continued emergence of megacities and giant border-busting urban corridors would be possible without the internet’s connective tissue. Way too messy and massive to police and inform, not to mention entertain and stimulate, urban environments have become co-dependent on the virtual world for their continued stability. Below are 10 ways in which the Virtual City intersects with our Concrete Lives.

GOVERNMENT DATA GOES OPEN SOURCE

During a recent TED talk given by internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee, he described how the concept of “open source” mash-ups for all data would allow anyone to build complex maps using freely available data. In layman’s terms, say you want to know how many speeding tickets were handed out on a stretch of road compared to the number of accidents, you could pull data from open source databases and find the answer. Today, much of this data is locked behind a firewall, but future cities will be much more open to sharing the metrics, especially if it helps us live better and more safely in the community. For business, the implication is that highly informed citizens tend to act more readily, so knowing what they know may keep you ahead of the competition.

LOCAL UTILITIES MOVE TO THE WEB

Another way the virtual city will intersect with the real world has to do with the local utility companies. Today, most of the information about your electrical use, water and sewerage, and gas are private. In most cases, they are also managed by disparate entities who have no incentive to share your records with anyone else. As data moves to a more open model, this information will likely become more publicly available, and city residents will be able to interact with the data online. For example, via social media you might soon be able to compare your usage with neighbours in a friendly competition to save the earth. Or, seeing that one neighbour tends to use less power than the rest, you can exchange ideas on why that family is so successful.

VIRTUAL CURRENCIES IMPACT REAL-WORLD EXCHANGES

In the online community Second Life, your money has real value in a virtual space. You can sell goods, set up a business, and buy trinkets. There’s a fluctuating exchange rate too (www.secondlife.com/statistics/economy-market.php ). At the end of the day, you can then convert these digital coins into real dollars. Yet the trend of micro-payments on PayPal and other portals, online banking and automated payments, and virtual currency on many online gaming platforms, such as World of Warcraft, will lead to a confluence of currencies: your dollar will have real value online and off, and we’ll likely be able to freely switch between them. This will also lead to a more open market: a dollar online will retain its value regardless of where you are geographically.

INTERNET-CONNECTED CARS INCREASE BUSINESS REVENUE

The connected car – one that uses 3G and Wi-fi – will lead to greater revenues for local businesses and car companies as well those who will experiment with on-dashboard retail offerings.

So how will this work? Imagine pulling up to a retail shop and ordering your clothes from the car and having them delivered to your door. Or, signing up for a streaming media service such as Pandora that charges a minimal fee so you can access every U2 album at will. Currently, vehicles such as the Ford Edge offer Wi-fiaccess on the vehicle that connects to a 3G connection in major US cities. The same connection will allow drivers to track fuel economy and plan routes at home, then send them to the car.

And the automobile is not the only vehicle that will connect. Apple recently filed a patent for a “smart bike” that will let you view your speed, distance, routes, and health-related stats such as heart rate.

“Companies that partner with content providers could potentially insert product suggestions or even advertisements into software,” says Aaron Bragman, an analyst at IHS Global Insight. “For instance, Caribou might partner with the navigation content provider to become the preferred coffee shop that comes up when you ask your car where the nearest coffee shop is. Businesses specialising in content delivery are also going to be popular as more cars become connected to the outside world. “

GEO-FENCING SENDS MARKETING DATA WHEN YOU NEAR A RETAILER

Geo-location is a major buzzword this year, especially now that the average consumer is so familiar already with GPS navigation. Geo-fencing is the next step. The concept has to do with tracking your location; when you cross a virtual fence in a physical city, you receive a message on your phone. The North Face has already experimented with this in Seattle, notifying existing customers about sales when they get near a store. Real estate companies are also signing up customers who receive a message about the sale price and features when they pass by a new listing.

“From a marketing standpoint, notifying the right person at the right place at the right time about your product is extremely powerful,” says Chris Thorman, market analyst at SoftwareAdvice.com. “You have a desirable product. You have identified the person that wants your product. You can automatically tell that person that your product is nearby. It’s the holy grail of marketing.”

Geo-fencing will also merge seamlessly with new social networking sites such as Google Me and Foursquare, which also track your whereabouts and activities. “Friending” will take on a new meaning in the virtual city of the future because you will know that your next date is standing at the hotel concierge’s desk. The idea is already adding business value to sites such as Yelp and on smartphones, especially through augmented reality, badges for accomplishing goals in a city, and added information for locales.

WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS TRACK YOUR MOVEMENTS

One of the great mysteries of retailing is judging how much of an online presence to promote without cannibalising your bricks-and-mortar sales. One key to understanding the variables of online versus physical retail is in embracing both at the same time, and passing data freely between them. For example, physical stores can offer online deals and vice versa, and these currencies and offerings can be fine-tuned so that a city can target customers more effectively, e.g. by offering location-aware services and analysing buying habits for those who usually purchase online or in a store. Similarly, in the real estate field, agents who make use of sites such as Zillow.com will be better equipped to deal with the online promotion aspects of house sales – the social connection, the more in-depth information, and any current images.

AUGMENTED REALITY PROVIDES GREATER CITY KNOWLEDGE

In a physical city, knowing information about travel routes, traffic conditions, and weather can help you be a better citizen and stay safe; augmented reality is already showing how the virtual city can intersect with a physical realm and aid citizens. Using Microsoft Bing, for example, you can point your smartphone at a building and see what is inside. At the airport, emerging technology still in early development will help you find the best route to a gate, just by holding up your phone to the terminal. And, the technology will go much further, showing the best traffic routes; weather reports based on which direction you hold your phone; the cheapest hotel rates; and which friends are nearby.

BRICKS-AND-MORTAR STORES FINALLY TAP THEIR VIRTUAL POTENTIAL

One of the great mysteries of retailing is judging how much of an online presence to promote without cannibalising your bricks-and-mortar sales. One key to understanding the variables of online versus physical retail is in embracing both at the same time, and passing data freely between them. For example, physical stores can offer online deals and vice versa, and these currencies and offerings can be fine-tuned so that a city can target customers more effectively, e.g. by offering location-aware services and analysing buying habits for those who usually purchase online or in a store. Similarly, in the real estate field, agents who make use of sites such as Zillow.com will be better equipped to deal with the online promotion aspects of house sales – the social connection, the more in-depth information, and any current images.

One way the virtual world will intersect with the physical world is that every item will have a wireless sensor. These low-cost RF tags are already used for shipping packages and tracking cars moving through a toll, and IBM has shown how this works with bridges (measuring structural integrity) and waterways (checking for pollutants), which are tagged with sensors that communicate with a central server. IBM has also used a similar sensor technology in cities in China to track car congestion patterns.

BRICKS-AND-MORTAR STORES FINALLY TAP THEIR VIRTUAL POTENTIAL

One of the great mysteries of retailing is judging how much of an online presence to promote without cannibalising your bricks-and-mortar sales. One key to understanding the variables of online versus physical retail is in embracing both at the same time, and passing data freely between them. For example, physical stores can offer online deals and vice versa, and these currencies and offerings can be fine-tuned so that a city can target customers more effectively, e.g. by offering location-aware services and analysing buying habits for those who usually purchase online or in a store. Similarly, in the real estate field, agents who make use of sites such as Zillow.com will be better equipped to deal with the online promotion aspects of house sales – the social connection, the more in-depth information, and any current images.

END OF THE LIBRARY, BIRTH OF THE RENTAL SERVICE

If the Netflix model showed one thing, it’s that you can “virtualise” anything. The decline of bricks-and-mortar movie stores such as Blockbuster merely echo the point. The concept is simple: instead of the consumer going to a location to purchase or rent an item, the Netflix model brings the item direct to you.

This convenience is an excellent match for the internet as well, since there are no physical shelves, cranky clerks behind the counter, or labyrinthine commercial building codes. The web is infinitely extendible.

That’s why new services such as Bookswim. com (book rentals) and Maghound.com (magazine rentals) have emerged, and could mean that the city library becomes less important. Why? Once city residents realise everything at a library is readily available online they may stop funding the physical entity through their tax dollars. And what else could be “rented” online? Anything from cars to bikes, computer equipment, clothes, and even entire houses. Just point and click, stay for a month, and “order” your next abode.

WIKICITIES REPLACE URBANISATION AND SUBURBAN SPRAWL

The Wikipedia encyclopedia is a phenomenon of social engineering, maintained by dedicated volunteers and reasonably accurate. Future cities could also follow this wiki model in building the city infrastructure – such as train stations, houses, and utilities – through public volunteerism. A kind of social networking approach to city planning that borrows heavily from the open source software concept, a wikicity would exist separately from the official government since the local populace would be responsible for all of the maintenance, infrastructure, and even the alternative power generation.