Franz-Reinhard Habbel

Spokesman and director of policy issues of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB)

Franz-Reinhard Habbel is spokesman and director of policy issues of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB) in Berlin and also the Head of DStGB-Innovators Club, a think tank for local authorities in Germany.

He is a member of the IT Planning Council and Board Member of the European Society for eGovernment Association. He is lecturer at the University of Osnabruck at the Department of Social Science since 2009. In his capacity as an expert in e-government, he is engaged in lectures on issues of globalization, the Internet and the modernization of politics and administration at home and abroad. He is the editor of several publications about ICT, media, web 2.0, e-democracy, open government and administrative modernization, He writes regular columns on the subject of modernization in his “Habbel blog” (www.habbel.de).

Smart cities and smart regions are important pillars for Germany’s future. The Smart-City Charter serves as a guideline for communities on their way towards an integrated urban development. The aspiration is to secure and extend quality of life, prosperity and attractiveness in the age of digitization. There is a far reaching transformation ahead of us.