A fascinating Digifest talk by Westminster City Council suggested that students may have a key role in ensuring that smart city and intelligent campus projects deliver real benefits. Westminster have a partnership with two of their local universities – KCL and UCL – that gives Masters students access to the council's extensive datasets about use of the city.
The question mark in the title of my Digifest talk is the key point, because I wonder whether data is the wrong place to start. In our current digital landscape, we're all too used to hearing ourselves described as "silkworms", donating "new oil" to "surveillance capitalists"; even the term "data subject" has a dehumanising feel.