Wikimania 2008/İstanbul

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{{Wikimania 2008-bids}}

İstanbul, Turkey - Candidate City of Wikimedia 2008
İstanbul
Location of Turkey
Location of Istanbul
Istanbul as seen from the ISS

In brief[edit]

The city of Istanbul[edit]

Istanbul is Turkey's most populous city, and its cultural, and economic centre. It is located on the Bosphorus strait, and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. Istanbul extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) side of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world which is situated on two continents. As well due to its history beeing dominated by Christians (capital of the Byzantine Empire) and Muslims (third capital of the Ottoman Empire) for a long time Istanbul is the place where Orient meets Occident.

Much more details about this living city can be found at our pet project Wikipedia in your language of choice:

ar:إسطنبولan:Istambulaz:İstanbul (şəhər)bs:Istanbulbr:Kergustentinbg:Истанбулca:Istanbulcs:Istanbulcy:Istanbulda:Istanbulde:Istanbulen:Istanbulet:İstanbulel:Κωνσταντινούποληes:Estambuleo:Istanbuloeu:Istanbulfa:استانبولfi:Istanbulfr:İstanbulga:Iostanbúlgd:Istanbulgl:Istambulko:이스탄불hy:Ստամբուլhi:इस्तांबुलhr:Istanbulio:Konstantinopoloid:Istanbulia:Istanbulos:Стамбулit:Istanbulhe:איסטנבולjv:Istanbulka:სტამბოლიku:Stenbolla:Constantinopolislb:Istanbullv:Stambulalt:Stambulashu:Isztambulmk:Истанбулnl:Istanbulja:イスタンブールno:Istanbulnn:Istanbulpl:Stambułpt:Istambulro:Istanbulru:Стамбулscn:Istanbulsimple:Istanbulsk:Istanbulsl:Istanbulsq:Stanbllilsr:Истанбулsh:Stambollisv:Istanbulth:อิสตันบูลtr:İstanbul (şehir)tk:Istanbuluk:Стамбулzh:伊斯坦堡

Conference venue[edit]

  • brief description of venue (room sizes, number of rooms etc.)
  1. Main hall:
  2. Seminar rooms:
  3. Lounge facilities:
  4. Other rooms (organisation, staff, speakers, interviews/press, storage):
  • contacts with conference venue (emails, price quotes etc.)
  • Technical facilities
    • Existing technical installations
      (on site Audio-visual...)
    • Wireless Network implementation
(existing? to be built? easiness of implementation?)

Transportation and visa information[edit]

  • Estimation of travel costs from all continents:
From Flight to Istanbul Flight from Istanbul Price (USD)
North
America
New York Wed, Jun 27 - Thu, Jun 28 Mon, Jul 02 $1,176
Los Angeles Wed, Jun 27 - Thu, Jun 28 Mon, Jul 02 $1,513
South
America
Buenos Aires Tues, Jun 26 - Thu, Jun 28 Mon, Jul 02 - Tue, Jul 03 $1,292
Europe Frankfurt Thu, Jun 28 Mon, Jul 02 $309
London Thu, Jun 28 Mon, Jul 02 $294
Asia Tokyo
Beijing
Africa Johannesburg
Australia Sydney Jun 27 - Thu, Jun 28 Mon, Jul 02 $1,801
Note 1: Better prices will be avalible as travel date aproaches. These prices should be considered as a "worse case scenario".
Note 2: All searches were done through travelocity

Visa issues:[edit]

Green: Don't require a visa
Orange: Visa obtainable at borders of Turkey instantly
Light Gray: Visa required from embassy or consulate
Dark Gray: Turkey

Citizens of the following countries can enter Turkey with a valid passport. A visa is not required:

Argentina, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, Fiji, Finland, France, Granada, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (only passports of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), Iran, Iceland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Morocco, Norway, New Zeeland, Oman, Qatar, St. Lucia, San Marino, Switzerland, Seychelles, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, South Korea, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Uruguay, United Arab Emirates, Vatican City, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Indonesia, Macedonia, Romania, The Republic of Croatia, The Republic of Slovenia, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Costa Rica, Kyrgyztan, El Salvador, The Republic of South Africa, Maldives.

Citizens of the following countries need a visa obtainable at borders of Turkey instantly:

United States, Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Jordan, Moldavia, Uzbekistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Albania, Belarus (White Russia), Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Taiwan, Guatemala.

Citizens of all other countries need a visa, which can be obtained from the nearest Turkish embassy or consulate.

Note: For detailed coverage, see turkeytravelplanner.com

Transport in Istanbul[edit]

Istanbul Metro:[edit]

Istanbul's Tram
Istanbul rail transit network

The subway system in Istanbul was initiated in 1992 and was completed in 2000. The first line between Taksim and 4th Levent went into service on September 16, 2000. This line is 8.5 km long and has 6 stations. All stations look similar but are in different colors. Currently there are 8 French built 4-car trains in service, which run every 5 minutes on average and transport 130,000 passengers daily. A trip along the entire line takes 12 minutes. The entire subway was built by the cut-and-cover method to withstand an earthquake of up to 9.0 on the Richter magnitude scale (Metro stations are: 4.Levent, Levent, Gayrettepe, Şişli, Osmanbey, Taksim)

Accommodation[edit]

Istanbul provides a wide range of accomodation solutions, from top-end to low budget hotels and guest houses, B&B's, hostels etc..

One can choose to stay in a hostel, there tons of choices. Prices start from US$10 per night. Decent private rooms in mid-range hotels cost US$20 ~ US$40 per night, according to the location. For the top-end, there are places like Hilton, The Ritz-Carlton, Hyatt Regency, Conrad and many others with no upper limit. Online booking is possible, credit cards are accepted and you can pay in many currencies in almost all the places. (US Dollars and Euro is accepted by almost every shop you see.)

Note that free wireless internet connection is also provided by many hostels and most of the hotels.

Simple doner sandwich (popular Turkish fast food) with drink may cost as low as 3$. Restaurants cooking Turkish food are abundant and a meal would cost about 5-7$ in a typical modest one.

  • See yemeksepeti.com for hundreds of restaurants, dishes and current prices for istanbul. (A website where you can order food online, click the orange box on the right of the page to browse in English.)
  • See neyiyelim.com Online Food Delivery, a site that enables you to give online food orders on Internet without trouble. It is a magic-like packet service portal that removes the inconveniences such as phone calls, misunderstanding and waiting, and guarantees to be free of problems with its solid infrastructure.

Local sponsorship opportunities[edit]

Possibility of local sponsorships

  • Contacts
(no name needed, just "company X, 4000 USD or will provide 300 beds)

Turkey is a rapidly developing county, on the way for the EU. The universities and the Turkish government are greatly supporting international organizations. Istanbul recently held great organizations as Formula 1 and UEFA Cup finals, and is definitely capable for Wikimania, and it won't be hard to find sponsorships. Besides the large companies, great help expected from the universities, in terms of accomodation, services and donations.

Local team[edit]

(Who stands behind this bid, who will be able to help locally, names and what they can help with)

Miscellaneous[edit]

Foreign exchange rates for New Turkish Lira: [1]

Self-evaluation[edit]

  • Weaknesses of the proposed location ...and how to overcome those weaknesses
  1. World's 15th most expensive city? -- tariqabjotu 12:40, 15 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
    Solution 1:
  2. Weakness 2
    Solution 2
  • Strengths of the proposed location
  1. Strength 1: City is easily accessible by plane, land, and even by sea. Major airport location.
  2. Strength 2: Much cheaper compared to many other bidding cities/places.
  3. Strength 3: In Europe, so better accessibility for Europeans

Original text to be salvaged[edit]

There are several reasons for having a Wikimania in Istanbul

  1. Istanbul is easily accessible by plane and land and even by sea. Istanbul has a major international airport.
  2. There are universities which are more than interested in hosting such an international event.
  3. Istanbul is the only major city built on two continents (Europe and Asia). Not only geographically, but also culturally it is the meeting point of eastern and western civilisations. Therefore it is the perfect place for representing inter-cultural aspet of Wikipedia.

Weather[edit]

Month Jul Aug
Avg high °C (°F) 28.5 (83.3) 28.3 (82.94)
Avg low temperature °C (°F) 19.4 (66.92) 13.4 (67.1)
Mean Number of Sunny Days(Hour) 10.5 9.4
Mean Number of Rainy Days 3.9 5.6
Source: Worldweather.org

--Cool CatTalk|@ 21:48, 4 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • Those are good points. Another important points:
    1. It may help relatively smaller Wikipedias (and more local ones) to get more attention. It may help Wikipedia community to focus more on relatively small but growing Wikipedias, as these Wikipedias are very important in a world where not everyone speaks English, German or French etc.
    2. İstanbul is much cheaper compared to many other cities/places and I believe especially to people in Europe and surrounding, it would be both a nice Wikimania experience and a comfy & cheap stay. This would increase the attendance. - 70.81.176.14 02:38, 6 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]