Wikimania 2011/Bids/Haifa

Official site of the conference: wikimania2011.wikimedia.org

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Wikimania 2011 candidate cities:

Haifa (Q) – Montréal (Q) – New York City (Q) – Toronto (Q)

Wikimania Haifa Logo

Haifa (חֵיפָה; حَيْفَا) is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 264,900.

Haifa has a mixed population of Jews and Arabs. It is also home to the Bahá'í World Centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is built on the slopes of the majestic Mount Carmel and along the beautiful Mediterranean beach of the Haifa Bay, which gave the city its name in ancient times ('Haifa' – or 'Hof Yafé' in modern Hebrew – means 'pretty beach'). Haifa has a history dating back to Biblical times (The earliest known settlement in the vicinity was a small port city established in the Late Bronze Age (14th century BCE)).

In the year 2011, Haifa will celebrate its jubilee - 250 years since the establishment of the new city. In 1761 Dhaher al-Omar, Bedouin ruler of Acre and the Galilee, destroyed the old city of Haifa and rebuilt the town in a new location, surrounding it with a wall. This event is marked as the beginning of the town's modern era.

Today, the city is a major seaport located on Israel's Mediterranean coastline. It is located about 90 km north of Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv and is the major regional center of northern Israel. Two respected academic institutions, the University of Haifa and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, are located in Haifa,

The city hosts dozens of cultural and artistic festivals every year, festivals which celebrate the diversity of the city's inhabitants and the peaceful coexistence between the members of the various religions who live in it. The proposed venue is the Haifa Auditorium which has been hosting the Haifa International Film Festival for the past 26 years.

The wonderful Mediterranean coasts - which are among the best in Israel, and its proximity to various religious, cultural and historical sites make the city a center of tourism in the north of Israel.

• Country: Israel
• City proposed: Haifa
• Venue: The Haifa Auditorium and the Hecht Building
• Proposed dates: Wednesday - Sunday, August 4-7, 2011; Hacking days take place on August 2nd and 3rd
• Contact persons: Deror Avi

Our Vision

We believe that there are two main principles that underline the purpose of Wikimania, namely offering a bird's-eye view on Wikimedia projects and the "Wiki phenomenon", and reaching out to people, especially those outside the North American and European "center" of the Wikimedia movement.

Wikimania is a unique opportunity for the Wikimedian community to comprehensively review all aspects related to the Wikimedia projects. It allows Wikipedians and other Wikimedians to step outside the daily routine, learn about the overall concept of Wikimedia, understand how it influences and is being influenced by society, and how it relates to other projects and ideas. The conference allows the attendees to exchange opinions and insights, and exposes them to the work and thinking beyond the projects themselves. We see the conference as an event that is at the same time educational, promotional, and social; our planning aims to support all of these aspects and purposes.

Haifa is a multicultural and multilingual city in which people from all around the world can feel at home. Beyond just feeling great, it provides and promotes an atmosphere that well suits the international and inter-cultural aspect of the Wikimedia movement and encourages productive, fruitful discussions.

Israeli scholars have been in the fore-front of research about the influence of the Internet, "Wiki culture", collaborative work and crowdsourcing on 21st century culture. Many Israeli researchers flew across the world to attend previous Wikimanias. This is a chance to meet these leading researchers in their homebase, and see recent fruits of their work. The "Matam" high-tech center and Haifa University with its large Sagy Internet research center on Internet and the Information-Age Society are just around the corner of the proposed Wikimania venue.

Israel is the center of the Hebrew-speaking community but it is also home to other linguistic communities, most particularly Arabic- and Russian-speaking. Haifa is the base of the Israeli Arabic Language Academy and of Arabic publishing houses. We plan Wikimania as an outreach event aiming at increasing the number of Wikimedians and free content adherents among Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian speakers and communities.

Haifa is also easily accessible to the Palestinian community, which is often left out of conferences such as Wikimania due to special difficulties. This community has a high rate of Internet usage but little first-hand acquaintance with Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

To increase awareness to this opportunity, we have secured sponsors for a large promotional budget (which will enable signs and large banners to be placed around the city of Haifa), and publications in various media outlets and in various languages.

Based on criticism we have read about some previous Wikimania events, we seek to strengthen the social ties and increase cooperation between wikipedians and wikimedians from around the world. In order to facilitate better social connections between the attendees, we have arranged that most meals will be buffet style, served in the venue's garden, allowing socializing throughout the event (without hindering the lecture periods). The dinners will take the form of a cocktail party on the first day, and an early arrivals cocktail party the day before enabling attendees to get to know each other from the beginning of the conference. There is also a beach party at the end. We have arranged for a 24 hour lounge, to enable socializing into the night.

We believe the city of Haifa is ideal for the advancement of the said goal, as it has wonderful weather in the afternoon and night enabling outside garden and beach parties (in the hot mornings - it is best to remain inside the air conditioned conference halls). The proximity of the city to various religious and historical sites lets us provide tours to the site. We see these tours as part of the social bonding activities offered to participants, allowing them to "adventure" together.

Location

About Haifa

Haifa on Wikipedia: en ar be-x-old bg ca cs da de el es eo et eu fi fr he hr hu id io is it ja jv ka ko la lad lb lt mr ms nl nn no oc pl pt ro ru sc sco sk sr sv tl tr uk uz vi yi zh

Geography

Panorama of Haifa at sunrise

Haifa is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean Coastal Plain, the historic "via Maris" - the ancient road between Europe, Africa, and Asia. The city is split over three tiers: The lowest is the center of commerce and industry including the Port. The middle level is on the slopes of Mount Carmel and consists of older residential neighborhoods, while the upper level consists of modern neighborhoods looking over the lower tiers. From here views can be across the Western Galilee region of Israel towards Rosh HaNikra and even Mount Hermon.

Climate

Haifa, its district and metropolitan area's location within Israel

Haifa has a Mediterranean climate with hot summers and cool rainy winters. The average temperature in summer is 26 °C. Humidity tends to be high all year round, and rain usually occurs between October and April.

Weather data from www.ims.gov.il
Month	July	August
Mean temperature - maximum	31.1°C (87.98°F)	31.4°C (88.52°F)
Mean number of days with max temp > 30 deg C (86 F)	23.7	26.2
Mean temperature - minimum	23°C (73.4°F)	23.6°C (74.48°F)
Mean number of days with min temp < 5 deg C	0	0
Mean total precipitation	0 mm	0 mm
Mean days with rainfall	0	0

Brief History

Haifa has been controlled by several civilizations, including the Canaanites, Israelites, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, the Mamluks, the Ottoman Turks and the British.

The city is first mentioned in Talmudic literature around the 3rd century CE, as a small fishing village and the home of Rabbi Avdimos and other Jewish scholars. Under Byzantine rule, Haifa continued to flourish, although never grew to great importance due to its proximity to Acre.

The Byzantine ruled the settlement until the 7th century, when the city was conquered – first by the Persians, and then by the Arabs. In 1100, it was conquered again by the crusaders, after a fierce battle with its Jewish and Muslim inhabitants. Under crusader rule, the city was a part of the Principality of Galilee until the Muslim Mameluks captured it in 1265.

The Carmelite order was founded at, and named after, Mount Carmel, in the 12th century.

In 1761 Dhaher al-Omar, the Bedouin ruler of Acre and Galilee, rebuilt the town in a new location, surrounding it with a wall. This event is marked as the beginning of the town's modern era. After El-Omar's death in 1775, the town remained under Ottoman rule until 1918, except for two brief periods: in 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Haifa as part of his unsuccessful campaign, but withdrew in the same year; between 1831 and 1840, the Egyptian viceroy Mehemet Ali governed, after his son Ibrahim Pasha wrested control from the Ottomans.

The arrival of the German Templers in 1868, who settled in what is now known as the German Colony of Haifa, was a turning point in Haifa's development. It was in the late 19th century that the area rose to importance in the Bahá'í Faith as the remains of the Báb were moved in 1909 to Haifa.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Haifa had emerged as an industrial port city and growing population center.

Panorama of Haifa. View from Mt. Carmel

Culture, Tourism and Leisure

Haifa has 13 hotels with a total of 1,462 rooms. The city is a coast city with 17 kilometers of beaches.

Haifa's main tourist attraction is the Bahá'í World Centre, with the golden-domed Shrine of the Báb and the surrounding gardens. Between 2005 and 2006, 86,037 visited the shrine. The restored German Colony, founded by the Templers, the Stella Maris Monastery and Elijah's Cave also draw many tourists as well as great warm swimming beaches (May-October) and surfing and windsurfing, Bat Galim beach.

Located in the Haifa district are the Ein Hod artists' colony, where over 90 artists and craftsmen have studios and exhibitions, the Mount Carmel national park, with caves where Neanderthal and early Homo Sapiens remains were found. Also nearby are the Druze villages where a majority of the Druze population in Israel is located.

The Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art

Israel National Museum of Science, Technology, and Space in Hadar

Despite its image as a port and industrial city, Haifa is the cultural hub of northern Israel. The Haifa Cinematheque, founded in 1975, hosts the annual Haifa International Film Festival during the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday.

The most popular museum is the Israel National Museum of Science, Technology, and Space, which recorded almost 150,000 visitors in 2004. The museum is located in the historic Technion building in the Hadar neighborhood. The Haifa Museum of Art houses a collection of modern and classical art, as well as displays on the history of Haifa. The Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art is the only museum in the Middle East dedicated solely to Japanese art.

Other museums in Haifa include the Museum of Prehistory, the National Maritime Museum, the Hecht Museum, the Dagon Archeological Museum, the Railway Museum, the Clandestine Immigration and Navy Museum, the Oil Industry Museum, and the Mane Katz Museum.

About Israel

Israel (officially the State of Israel) is a country in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area.

Israel has a population of about 7.5 million people, of whom approximately 5.7 million are Jewish. The largest ethnic minority group is the segment denominated as Arabs, while minority religious groups include Muslims, Christians, Druze and Samaritans, most of whom are found within the Arab segment.

Israel is approximately 20,770 square kilometers (8,019 sq mi) in area, of which two percent is water.

Despite its small size, Israel is home to a variety of geographic features, from the Negev desert in the south to the mountain ranges of the Galilee, Carmel, and the Golan in the north. The Coastal Plain on the shores of the Mediterranean is home to seventy percent of the nation's population. East of the central highlands lies the Jordan Rift Valley, which forms a small part of the 6,500-kilometer (4,040-mi) Great Rift Valley. The Jordan River runs along the Jordan Rift Valley, from Mount Hermon through the Hulah Valley and the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the Earth.

Venue

The Haifa Auditorium Complex. View from the garden. On the left is Rapaport Hall, in the centre - the Auditorium, and on the right - the Hecht Building

Floor sketch

The Haifa Auditorium has been the annual host of the Haifa International Film Festival for the past 26 years, and the nearby Hecht building and Auditorium complex has hosted numerous conventions and events. The Auditorium has three large lecture halls, and the Hecht Building has seven smaller halls.

The Hecht building is a renovated historic building originally built as a hotel by the Templers during the late 19th century.

Nearby is the Carmel Center shopping and leisure district, which has several hotels of all values. The Carmelit (Haifa's metro) has a station nearby, making access simple and easy.

Student dorms of the Downtown Port Campus and Haifa University are located near the Carmelit station and bus stations, enabling visitors who stay at the dorms to reach the Auditorium with great ease, from Paris Square Carmelit Subway station adjacent to the Downtown Port Campus, a 7 minute ride, or 15 minutes by bus to the Carmel Center Stations and a 2 minute walk to the Auditorium. 8 Hotels around the Carmel Center are all within easy walking distance to the Auditorium.

Provided for Wikimania's use, will be:

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The Main auditorium will be used for the opening event and Wiki Academy - seating 1,139 which may be extended to 1,453 (theatre style)

The Rapaport Auditorium will be used for the main meetings- seating 450 (theatre style)

Enterence Hall

The Haifa Cinematheque - seating 160 (theatre style)

The Hecht House:

The Hech House contains:

• 1 room of 120 seats (class room style)
• 3 rooms of 60 seats (class room style)
• 3 rooms of 30 seats (class room style)
• Meeting room for VIP Guests and press room

The Center's garden for opening welcome cocktail.

The Lounge on the third floor of Hect House will be open 24 hours a day, providing a comfortrable relaxation and discussion area

Reception area for exhibition - which can hold 500

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• • All rooms set up for presentation (and simultaneous translation) and taping of the proceeding (with possible simultaneous webcast)
  • All rooms are air conditioned.

The Auditorium has facilities for check-in (receiving the delegates packs) and on-site guidance, and provides all security services.

On-site is a small shopping mall where restaurants and supplies can be found.

The Auditorium is located at the heart of the Carmel Center shopping and leisure district, in which there are cinemas, dozens of coffee shops and restaurants and many pubs, some of which are open 24 hours, and two shopping malls, one directly below the Auditorium and Panorama Center, in the podium floors of the Dan Panorama Hotel Tower.

The entire site allows easy access to mobility-reduced participants, as well as aids to persons with limited visibility.

The entire site will remain available throughout the evening and nights (complete 24hr access) for socialization and meetings; one of the two lounges will provide snacks throughout the day and night as well as coffee, tea, water. Both lounges will have WiFi, and in one of them electronic screens will show the schedule of the events as well as twitter updates from the various lectures. One of the lounges will only be open to the participants of the conference, ensuring the safeguarding of valuables therein. An attendant will be located at the entrance to the Hecht building ensuring that only conference members will enter the building.

The Reception center's garden and exhibition area will also be open for the participants throughout the conference. Both lounges and the garden (which will have garden furniture) will provide the participants with places to relax and to socialize.

Should it be decided that the conference schedule be extended by several days, the venue will be available.

A buffet lunch will be served at the Auditorium Garden. All food will be Kosher. We take into account attendance of at least 500, of which 150 will be vegetarian.

Accommodations

Location of hotels in the vicinity of the venue

We have received the sponsorship of both the Haifa University and the Technion Institute who will provide dorms at no cost.

For the budget traveler, the city has several budget hotels - all with bed and breakfasts. The densest collection of hotels is within walking distance from the Haifa Auditorium. Three of these hotels are four and five-star hotels. Several luxury boutique spa hotels are also within walking distance.

Most hotel rooms in the vicinity have rooms that are accessible to the disabled.

In the Carmel Centre area there are 8 hotels of varying standards. Several hotels are located in other parts of the city. Also Haifa hosts four dormitories, all of which can accommodate about 300 people.

Wikimedia Israel has negotiated rates with three four-star hotels in the vicinity of the venue. We have received an offer for about 165 double or triple occupancy rooms. About 100 rooms in the Har Hacarmel Hotel, about 50 rooms in the Nof Hotel, and 15 in the Dan Gardens Hotel. The price per person per night is $50 ($55 in the Dan Gardens).

In total, four nights will cost $200 per person (bed and breakfast) in a double occupancy room ($220 in the Dan Gardens; a bit less - about $185 in a triple occupancy room).

The price includes a continental breakfast at both hotels, and in Har Hacarmel hotel – access to the gym and pool area. Free WIFI has been agreed upon with both hotels. If we book at least 50 rooms in the Nof Hotel for most of the convention (three to four nights), additional discount has been agreed upon.

A single occupant may use a standard room for four nights at the Har Hacarmel and Nof Hotels for $340 and a superior room at the Nof Hotel for four nights for $440. A single occupant standard room four four nights at the Dan Gardens will pay $380.

All three hotels are within walking distance of the venue (Dan Gardens and Nof Hotels – 10 minutes walk, Har Hacarmel – 15 minutes), however Wikimedia Israel will provide a shuttle bus which will travel hourly between the hotels and the venue.

For participants who can not afford hotel accommodation, Wikimedia Israel has negotiated and obtained 150 beds (most in single occupancy rooms) in various dorms around the city. The actual cost of the dorms is NIS 20,000 (approximately $5,000). This amount has already been obtained by Wikimedia Israel. A shuttle will travel hourly between the dorms and the venue, due to the distances between the dorms and the venue. Negotiations to obtain agreements for more beds are ongoing.

Wikimedia Israel will be able to arrange for centralized registration for the hotels for the participants.

Wikimedia Israel will also place welcome desks (information and assistance desks) at the main hotels in which the participants will stay throughout the entire conference.

Student dormitories

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The Technion has nine different dormitory villages, each with its own character. In all, the Technion has more than 4,000 dorm rooms.

Address: Technion Campus

Map: path by car from dorms to convention area

Cost: See above

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 15 minutes by car.

Beds: 25

Regular Buses: Bus nos. 31, 200

Shuttle Service: See above

Website:Technion Dorms on the Technion Campus

The German Colony

Address: 85 Allenby St.

Map: path by car from dorms to convention center

Cost: See above

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 15 minutes drive

Beds: 25

Regular Buses: Bus nos. 37, 28, 23, 3, 1

Shuttle Service: See above

Address: Haifa University Campus

Map: path from dorms to conference area

Cost: See above

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 20 minutes drive

Beds: 50

Regular Buses: Bus nos. 37, 30 ,200

Shuttle Service: See above

Haifa University Dorms - View from Park Nesher

Haifa University Dorms - View from Park Nesher

Address: 14 Shikma st., Romema

Map: path by car from dorms to conference area

Cost: See above

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 10 minutes drive

Beds: 50

Regular Buses: bus no. 23

Shuttle Service: See above

Address: 65 Hanamal St.

Map: path from dorms to conference area

Cost: See above

Distance from the conference venue: 10 minutes by the Carmelit; 17 minutes by car

Beds: Not yet allocated

Regular Buses: Bus nos. 37, 28, 23, 3, 1, Carmelit

Shuttle Service: See above

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Hotels and Hostels

Three and Four Star Hotels

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Hotel facade

located within 10 minutes walk from the Carmel Center, at the very heart of Haifa

Address: 103 Derech Hayam St. Haifa

Tel: 972-4-8381413/4/5

Fax: 972-4-8381763

Map: path from hotel to conference area

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 15 minutes on foot

Beds: 98 rooms - 1-3 persons per room

Price: See above

Facilities: The Spa - health and sports center including an indoor, heated swimming pool, gym, saunas. All the rooms are equipped with bath room, 220v electricity sockets, direct dial telephone, cable TV, individual control air condition, mini bar and coffee corner. Most rooms have a balcony. WiFi at the hotels Lounge.

Website: Mount Carmel

Additional images of the hotel

Address: 124 Yaffe-Nof Street

Haifa 34454

Tel: +972-4-8302020

Fax: +972-4-8302021

Email: dangardenshaifa@danhotels.com

For reservations contact:

The Dan Gardens Hotel Haifa

Tel: 972-3-5202552

Fax: 972-3-5480111

Toll-free from UK, Germany, France, Belgium: 00-800-32646835

Toll-free from USA: 1-800-2237773/4

Email: Reservations-T.DanGardensHaifa@DanHotels.com

Map: hotel location of google map and path to convention area

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 10 minutes on foot

Beds: 31 Modern guestrooms. max 2 Persons in one room.

Price: See above

Facilities: Guestrooms at the newly redecorated Dan Gardens Haifa are attractively furnished in contemporary style and feature TV, direct dial telephone and fast plug play Internet connection. An electric kettle with tea and coffee making accessories as well as a refrigerator add a thoughtful touch. Bathrooms are appointed with the latest amenities. Several rooms have balconies. Guests staying at the Dan Gardens have free access to the swimming pool and children pool at the nearby Dan Panorama Hotel. Use of the sauna and the fitness center (for a fee). Tennis and squash courts can be reserved near the hotel (for fee). The Dan Gardens hotel offers guests an excellent and varied breakfast menu; all guest rooms have tea and coffee making facilities and a small fridge. The hotel has three small conference rooms (maximum 50 persons) and a terrace with a coffee shop, overlooking the Haifa Bay.

Website: Dan Gardens

Trip Advisor Review

Nof Hotel - view from the Haifa Auditorium

The hotel sits on top of Mount Carmel with all its rooms overlooking the Haifa Bay, the Bahai' shrine and western Galilee

Address: 101 Hanassi Ave., Haifa, 34642,

Tel: 04-8354311, Fax: 04-8388810

Map: path from hotel to conference area

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 10 minutes on foot

Beds: 90 rooms all with bay view

Price: See above

Facilities: All the rooms are equipped with bath room, hair dryer, 220v electricity sockets, direct dial telephone, cable TV, individual control air condition, mini bar and coffee corner.

website: Nof

Additional images of the hotel

Address: 110 Hanassi Ave., P.O.B 6208, Haifa 31061, Israel

Tel. +972 4 837 74 81, Fax: +972 4 837 24 43

Map: path from hotel to conference center

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 10 minutes on foot

Beds: 30 rooms

Price: 50$ per night per person BB, two people in each room

Website: Shalom Hotel

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Five Star Hotels

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The Dan Carmel Hotel sits high up on Mount Carmel amidst breathtaking views of Haifa Bay and the Mediterranean coastline. This hotel is situated on the prestigious, tree-lined Hanassi Boulevard only meters away from the Bahai Temple. The hotel is also just a couple of minutes walk from the Carmel Center.

Address: The Dan Carmel Hotel Haifa

85-87 Hanassi Avenue

Haifa 34642

Tel: +972-4-8303030

Fax: +972-4-8303040

Email: dancarmel@danhotels.com

For reservations contact:

The Dan Carmel Hotel Haifa

Tel: 972-3-5202552

Fax: 972-3-5480111

Toll-free from UK, Germany, France, Belgium: 00-800-32646835

Toll-free from USA: 1-800-2237773/4

Email: Reservations-T.DanCarmel@DanHotels.com

Map: hotel location on google maps and path to Convention area

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 20 minutes on foot

Beds: 224 rooms including 20 Suites, 1 Presidential Suite, 1 Royal Suite

Price: $190 single occupant per night, $110 per person in double occupancy per night

Facilities: The hotel offers an outdoor swimming pool, a children’s pool, fitness center, sauna, a choice of dining options, a lobby-lounge and piano bar, and various shops. For business guests, a full range of facilities is available (including secretarial services for a fee) and, guests staying in executive rooms and suites , can use the special VIP King David Lounge on the 10th floor.

Website: Dan Carmel

Additional images of the hotel

Dan Panorama

Dan Panorama Hotel is a twenty-one stories high tower on the summit of Mount Camel, offering views of Haifa Bay and all of northern Israel. The hotel is directly linked to the fashionable Panorama Mall, with its fine stores, cafes and cinemas

Address: The Dan Panorama Hotel Haifa

107 Hanassi Avenue

Haifa 34632

Tel: +972-4-8352222

Fax: +972-4-8352235

Email: panoramahaifa@danhotels.com

For reservations contact:

The Dan Panorama Hotel Haifa

Tel: 972-3-5202552

Fax: 972-3-5480111

Toll-free from UK, Germany, France, Belgium: 00-800-32646835

Toll-free from USA: 1-800-2237773/4

Email: Reservations-T.PanoramaHaifa@DanHotels.com

Map: google map - path from hotel to convention area

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 10 minutes on foot

Beds: 266 rooms including 46 "Rooms Plus" with kitchenette,

3 Bay View Suites.10 Executive floors (10-19)

Price: $160 single occupant per night, $98 per person in double occupancy per night

Facilities: The hotel's facilities include a swimming pool, children's pool, sauna, a state-of-the-art fitness center, an excellent kids club, and entertainment for the whole family. Guests staying on the executive floors can enjoy the special VIP Carmel lounge and there are excellent business services including secretarial services (for fee) covered private parking is available (for fee). The adjacent shopping mall provides a variety of elegant stores, a pharmacy, jewelry shop, beauty salon, cafes and a cinema.

Website: Dan Panorama

Additional images of the hotel

Crowne Plaza Haifa hotel is located on top of Mount Carmel offering a breathtaking view of the Haifa Bay.

Address: 111 Yeffe Nof St.

Haifa, 34454 ISRAEL

Hotel Front Desk: 972-4-8350835

Hotel Fax: 972-4-8350836

Map: path from hotel to convention area

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 10 minutes on foot

Beds: 100 Guest Room

Price:

Facilities: The Health Club features an indoor pool, dry and wet saunas, Jacuzzi and a fully equipped gym.

Website:Crown Plaza

Additional images of the hotel

Spa Boutique Hotel.

Address: 1 Heinrich Heine St. Haifa (Off 30 Moriah Blvd.)

Tel. +972-4-8375777/8

Fax: +972-4-8375779

info@villacarmel.co.il

Map: path from hotel to convention area

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 20 minutes on foot

Beds: 15 suites

Price:

Facilities: Most rooms feature a Jacuzzi or computerized jet shower; the rooftop sundeck is outfitted with a large Jacuzzi and sauna.

Website: Vila Carmel

Leonardo Hotel on the Carmel Beach

Located on the shore of Carmel Beach

Address: 10 David Elazar Street

35081 Haifa

Tel.: +972 (4) 8508888

Fax: +972 (4) 8501160

Email: info.haifa@leonardo-hotels.com

www.leonardo-hotels.com

Map: Path by car from hotel to conference area

Distance from the conference venue: ca. 20 minutes by car

Beds: 197 guest rooms, 110 of them are suites.

Price:

Facilitiesconference centres in Haifa, including a state-of-the-art business lounge and indoor pool. Each rooms has a kitchenette including refrigerator, dining area, cable TV, telephone and voice mail, central air conditioning and personal safe. Each room includes connection options to PC and Internet.

Website: Leonardo (formerly: Le Meridién)

Additional images of the hotel

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Transportation

Getting to Haifa

A direct train links Israel's Ben Gurion Airport with Haifa. The train rides take about an hour and a half. A cab service enables reaching the city of Haifa from the airport within 1 hour and ten minutes.

Representatives will await the participants at the airport, ensuring the participants board the correct trains, and provide the participants with free or subsidized train tickets. Transportation will be provided in Haifa from the train station to the hotels or the conference area.

Haifa has its own airport, Haifa Airport, which serves domestic flights to Tel Aviv and Eilat.

Air Travel to Israel

All the prices quoted below are the two options of the two cheapest available round trip tickets for adults, without extra charges.
If the Non-stop flight is the cheapest option - only the non stop option is displayed. If the difference between the cheapest option and the second cheapest is more than USD 100, only one option is displayed.
Travel time includes waiting time for connecting flights. If the cheapest flight took unreasonably long without a large price difference, it was omitted.
Information Source: All info is from expedia web site. We have chosen the dates of 4th August 2010 to 8th August 2010 as a rough estimate for these dates in 2011.

Air connections to Ben Gurion Airport from European cities

City	Airfare	Airlines	Number of stopovers	Stopover cities	Travel time	Additional remarks
Amsterdam	USD 456/ USD 604	Tarom-Romanian Air Transport/ LOT	1	Warsaw / Bucharest	8h15/ 6h50	-
Athens	USD 476 / USD 488	Turkish/ El Al	1/ 0	Istanbul/ Non stop	6h30/ 1h55	-
Budapest	USD 529/ USD 546	Alitalia/ El AL	1/ 0	Rome/ Non Stop	7h20/ 3h10	-
Brussels	USD 558/ USD 574	Czech Airlines / LOT	1	Prague / Warsaw	8h10/ 7h20	-
Frankfurt	USD 371	El Al	0	Non Stop	4h05
Helsinki	USD 545/ USD 569	Czech Airlines/ LOT	1	Prague / Warsaw	11h55/ 7h10	-
Liverpool	USD 646	KLM	1	Amsterdam	7h45	-
London	USD 525/ USD 545	Alitalia/ EL AL	1/ 0	Rome/ Nonstop	6h25/ 4h55	-
Madrid	USD 636	Iberia	0	Nonstop	4h40	-
Moscow	USD 402/ USD 589	Aerosvit Airlines/ El AL	1	Kiev/ Non stop	9h10/ 4h0	-
Paris	USD 610	Swiss International Air Lines	1	Zurich	6h10	Non stop option by Air France or El AL is USD 825 and takes 4h25
Prague	USD 517/ USD 546	Aerosvit Airlines/ Turkish Airlines	1	Kiev/ Istanbul	12h35/ 5h40	An EL AL nonstop flight costs $581 and takes 3h50
Rome	USD 523	Turkish Airlines	1	Istambul	5h45	An Alitalia non-stop flight cost USD604 and takes 3h10
Istanbul	USD 430	Turkish Airlines	0	nonstop	4h05	-
Stockholm	USD 438	Austrian Airlines	1	Vienna	6h55	-
Vienna	USD 621/ USD 635	Alitalia /Lufthansa	1	Rome/ Frankfurt	6h35/ 6h35	An Austrian Airlines direct non-stop flight costs USD675 and takes 3h25
Vilnius	USD 540	Lufthansa	1	Frankfurt am Main	7h25	-

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Air connections to Ben Gurion Airport from African cities

City	Airfare	Airlines	Number of stopovers	Stopover cities	Travel time	Additional remarks
Cairo	USD 635/ USD 685	Royal Jordanian / El Al	1/ 0	Amman / Non-stop	6h00/ 1h20
Dakar	USD 1,135	Iberia	1	Madrid	16h05	-
Johannesburg	USD 955	Ethiopian Airlines	1	Addis Ababa	12h35	-
Nairobi	USD 779	Turkish Airlines	1	Istanbul	11h25	-

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Air connections to Ben Gurion Airport from Asian cities

City	Airfare	Airlines	Number of stopovers	Stopover cities	Travel time	Additional remarks
Beijing	USD 1,241	Turkish Airlines	1	Istanbul	19h20	-
Hong Kong	USD 1,125	Cathay Pacific, Royal Jordanian	2	Bangkok, Amman	19h15
New Dehli	USD 714	Turkish Airlines	1	Istanbul	12h00	-
Riyadh	USD 2,160	Etihad Airways, Royal Jordanian	2	Abu Dhabi, Amman	12h50	-
Seoul	USD 2,064	Thai Air International	1	Bangkok	19h00	-
Tokyo	USD 2,041	Swiss International Air Lines	1	Zurich	21h20	-

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Air connections to Ben Gurion Airport from Australian cities

City	Airfare	Airlines	Number of stopovers	Stopover cities	Travel time	Additional remarks
Perth	USD 2,389	Qantas Airways, Swiss International Air Lines	2	Singapore, Zurich	28h00	One stopover in Hongkong with Cathay Pacific and El Al costs USD 2,639 and takes the same amount of time.
Sydney	USD 2,222	Qantas Airways, Royal Jordanian	2	Bangkok, Amman	21h50	One stopover flight with Cathay Pacific and El AL costs USD 2,481 and takes 22h35

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Air connections to Ben Gurion Airport from North American cities

City	Airfare	Airlines	Number of stopovers	Stopover cities	Travel time	Additional remarks
Chicago	USD 1,278	Iberia	1	Madrid	15h05	-
Dallas	USD 1,392	Iberia	2	Chicago, Madrid	18h15	-
Los Angeles	USD 1,575	Air Canada	1	Toronto	17h00	An El AL non-stop flight costs USD 1,878 and takes 14h30
Mexico City	USD 1,708	British Airways Continental	1	London Newark	23h45 18h40	-
Miami	USD 1,278	Iberia	1	Madrid	15h40	-
New York	USD 1,191	LOT	1	Warsaw	21h40	An Iberia flight through Madrid costs USD 1,441 and takes 13h25 A Delta non-stop flight costs USD 1,490 and takes 10h50
San Francisco	USD 1,575	Air Canada	1	Toronto	17h00	-
Toronto	USD 1,464	US Airways	1	Philadelphia	20h16	A non-stop Air Canada flight costs USD 1,664 and takes 10h55
Vancouver	USD 1,829	UNITED, Swiss International Air Lines	2	San Francisco , Zurich	24h30	A one stop Air Canada flight through Toronto costs USD 2,049 and takes 17h00

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Air connections to Ben Gurion Airport from South American cities

City	Airfare	Airlines	Number of stopovers	Stopover cities	Travel time	Additional remarks
Bogota	USD 1,631/ USD 1,732	Iberia	1	Madrid	24h45 16h20	Same company - USD 100 difference for the shorter wait
Buenos Aires	USD 1,473	American Airlines, El Al	1	New York	27h00	-
Rio de Janeiro	USD 1,562	TAM Brazilian Airlines, KLM	2	Sao Paulo, Amsterdam	28h15	A one stop Iberia flight through Madrid costs USD 1,811 and takes 16h05

By Train

Haifa is well connected by train lines to Tel Aviv, Akko (Acre), Beer Sheva and the Ben Gurion International Airport. The cost of the travel from Ben Gurion to Haifa is ₪ 37
$  10.05 / €  7.39 / £  6.51 . The trip takes a little over an hour and during peak hours there are as many as 3-4 services hourly.

There are 4 train stations in Haifa:

• Hof ha-Carmel — adjacent to the Central Bus Station that serves lines connected to the cities south of Haifa and direct buses to all parts of the city.
• Bat Galim — Close to Elija's Cave and the cable car to Stella Maris Carmelite monastery.
• Haifa Center HaShmona — Adjacent to the Downtown Port Campus dorms, Haifa port, the Carmelit underground funicular which connects to the Carmel Center and the Haifa Auditorium, lower entrance to the Bahá'í garden, German colony, and the downtown pubs and clubs.
• Lev ha-Mifratz — Adjacent to the Northern Bus terminal that connects to the Acre, the Galilee and Northern Israel.

From Haifa Center HaShmona, the cost of the Carmelit subway ride to the Carmel Center is ₪ 6.4
$  1.74 / €  1.28 / £  1.13, taking 7 minutes. A bus ticket from Hof ha-Carmel Station to the Carmel Center is also ₪ 6.4
$  1.74 / €  1.28 / £  1.13, taking 15 minutes; a cab ride is approximately ₪ 30
$  8.15 / €  5.99 / £  5.28 (including extra charge for luggage). One regular bus ticket can be used repeatedly free of charge for 75 minutes on all city buses.

By Car

From the south, route 2 is the coastal highway which links Haifa with Tel Aviv. This journey from the airport to Haifa takes up to one and a half hours.

Special Shuttle Service

Wikimedia Israel will attempt to arrange buses from Ben Gurion Airport to the convention area on the day of the convention.

Currency

The currency used in Israel is the New Israeli Shekel (₪). There are currency changing offices everywhere, and some stores even allow payment in US dollars.

Cost of living

Food McDonald's "BigMac" Meal (with fries and a drink) ₪ 29.90 $  8.12 / €  5.97 / £  5.26 3 course meal with a glass of wine at a high-end restaurant ₪ 200 $  54.32 / €  39.93 / £  35.21 3 course meal without wine at a high-end restaurant ₪ 155 $  42.1 / €  30.95 / £  27.28 "Pizza Hut" personal pizza with 3 toppings ₪ 30 $  8.15 / €  5.99 / £  5.28 "Pizza Hut" Large pizza with 3 toppings ₪ 92 $  24.99 / €  18.37 / £  16.19 "Snickers" candy bar, 57g ₪ 4 $  1.09 / €  0.8 / £  0.7 Large Sandwich ₪ 24 $  6.52 / €  4.79 / £  4.22 Almond Croissant ₪ 15 $  4.07 / €  2.99 / £  2.64 Burekas cheese / potato ₪ 13 $  3.53 / €  2.6 / £  2.29 Large Tuna Salad ₪ 34 $  9.23 / €  6.79 / £  5.98 Large Chicken Salad ₪ 39 $  10.59 / €  7.79 / £  6.86 Breakfast (2 eggs, 2 cheeses, salad, hot and cold drinks) ₪ 39 $  10.59 / €  7.79 / £  6.86 Inside-out Sushi with Salmon (8 units) ₪ 30 $  8.15 / €  5.99 / £  5.28 Thai Noodles with Meat ₪ 48 $  13.04 / €  9.58 / £  8.45

Drinks Sprite/ Coca Cola ₪ 8 $  2.17 / €  1.6 / £  1.41 Short Espresso ₪ 7 $  1.9 / €  1.4 / £  1.23 Double Espresso ₪ 10 $  2.72 / €  2 / £  1.76 Cappuccino ₪ 11 $  2.99 / €  2.2 / £  1.94 Hot Chocolate ₪ 15 $  4.07 / €  2.99 / £  2.64 Tea ₪ 11 $  2.99 / €  2.2 / £  1.94 Chai Latte ₪ 14 $  3.8 / €  2.8 / £  2.46 Beer ₪ 17 $  4.62 / €  3.39 / £  2.99 Iced Tea ₪ 10 $  2.72 / €  2 / £  1.76 Turkish Coffee ₪ 8 $  2.17 / €  1.6 / £  1.41 Mineral / Sparkling Water ₪ 8 $  2.17 / €  1.6 / £  1.41 Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice / Lemonade ₪ 12 $  3.26 / €  2.4 / £  2.11 Freshly Squeezed Carrot Juice ₪ 14 $  3.8 / €  2.8 / £  2.46

Suggested Itinerary

We suggest the following Itinerary for the leisure activities of the event:

• Tuesday-Wednesday - Hacking days commence in Beit Hecht.
• Wednesday night - Early comers Gala Cocktail at the Japanese gardens of the Tikotin Museum
• Thursday - 10:00 - 13:00 Opening session at the Haifa Auditorium
  • 13:00 - 13:45 lunch at the Auditorium Garden
  • 13:45 - 18:45 Conference Sessions and the third Wiki Academy event which will take place alongside the Wikimania conferece.
  • 19:30 - Opening Gala Cocktail at the gardens of the Auditorium center
• Friday - Reception for VIP's at the City Council Hall.
  • 10:00 - 13:00 Conference Sessions
  • 13:00 - 13:45 lunch at the Auditorium Garden
  • 13:45 - 18:00 Conference Sessions
  • 19:00 Festive Shabbat Dinner (sit down dinner)
  • Later at night - shuttles will take the party goers to Tel Aviv with its numerous pubs, discotheques and parties

• Saturday
  • 10:00 - 13:00 Conference Sessions
  • 13:00 - 13:45 lunch at the Auditorium Garden
  • 13:45 - 16:00 Conference Sessions
  • Saturday late afternoon and evening - beach party
  • Saturday late afternoon - VIP party at the Garden of the Japanese Museum. Afterwords, VIP's will join the beach party.

• Sunday: Wikimedia Israel is planning to provide the attendants with various entertainment and educational options:
  • Tours:

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The Sea of Galilee

The Jordan River

Organized tours in numerous religious sites in the north of Israel and around the Sea of Galilee.

Guide: will be provided by Wikimedia Israel

Itinerary:

8:00 Departure from Haifa

9:00 Nazareth - church of Annunciation and Miriam's fountain

10:30 Capernaum - home to one of the earliest churches in the world as well as an ancient synagogue, St Peter's home town

11:30 Mount of Beatitudes - The traditional site of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, with its beautiful view of the Sea of Galilee

12:30 Tabha – Place of Jesus' miracle of the Multiplication of the Fish and Loaves at the location is an ancient Byzantine church

13:30 Lunch in Tiberias

15:30: Yardenith – the baptismal site for pilgrims in Jordan River

18:30: Return to Haifa

Dome of the rock

old city market

• Guided tours in the city of Jerusalem

Guide: An official guide from Yad Ben Zvi School for Jerusalem Studies (the main institute for the research of the history of Jerusalem) will be provided by Wikimedia Israel

Itinerary:

8:00 Departure from Haifa

10:30: Walk on the old city's ramparts

11:15 :Mount Zion: Dormition Church, King David's tomb and Last Supper Room

13:00: Lunch in the old city

14:00: Jewish and Christian Quarter, including observation of the Temple Mount, and a visit to the Holy Sepulchre Church – the site of the crucifixion.

16:30: The Jerusalem Archaeological Park - Davidson Center

18:30: Western Wall

19:15 Return to Haifa (The bus can stop at the airport for those leaving on Sunday night)

Holy Sepulchre

• Guided tours to Acre (Acco)

Guide: An official guide of Acco Municipality :Itinerary:

8:00 Departure from Haifa

8:45 Old City of Acco: Crusader Halls, El Jazar Mosque Turkish Hamam, Templar's underground escape tunnel, Khan El-Umdan

12:30 Lunch at a restaurant in the waterfront

13:15 Old city Market

15:15 Return to Haifa

• Various tours of Haifa and Bahai Gardens

Guide: An official guide provided by the Haifa Municipality

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• Monday: for visitors who wish to stay an additional day, and have chosen to tour the city of Haifa on Sunday:
  • Tours of Acre and Nazareth

Guide: An official guide provided by the Haifa Municipality

Itinerary:

8:00 Departure from Haifa

8:45 Old City of Acco: Crusader Halls, El Jazar Mosque Turkish Hamam, Templar's underground escape tunnel, Khan El-Umdan

12:30 Lunch at a restaurant in the waterfront

13:15 Old city Market

14:00 Leaving Acco to Nazareth

15:15 Nazareth - church of Annunciation and Miriam's fountain

16:15 Leaving Nazareth to Haifa

18:30 Return to Haifa

Budget and Financing

The Haifa Municipality and the Haifa University have agreed to provide financial support to the event, as well as visibility and both will assist in raising local sponsorships and support.

Several companies have already agreed to support the event and we have a realistic expectations that a global budget of about $200,000 will be raised.

In view of the large number of attendees at local events such as Wiki meetings and Wiki Academy we expect an attendance of more than 700 participants.

Budget

Service	Description	For	Cost	Additional information
Venue	lecture halls, press room, technical assistance	The main Auditorium for 1 day, The Rapaport Auditorium and The Haifa Cinematheque - 4 days (3 days for convension and 1 say for set up), Hecht House and gardend 5 days - in order to host Hacking Days	₪ 29000 $  7876.15 / €  5790.27 / £  5104.74	Amount already obtained by Wikimedia Israel
Accommodation	Free student dorms for all participants who request it, or assistance with hotel accommodation based on obtaining sponsorship. Arrangement for cheaper prices were made with some hotels.	250 beds * 5 days	₪ 33000 $  8962.52 / €  6588.93 / £  5808.84)	Dorms costs negotiated and already obtained by Wikimedia Israel. Possible cost decrease for hotels through sponsorships
Technical	WiFi, A/V, laptops, projectors, equipment for translation, etc.	5 days	₪ 10000 $  2715.92 / €  1996.65 / £  1760.25)	video streaming and video gallery of the event - sponsered by Kaltura
Medical backup		500 participants	₪ 10000 $  2715.92 / €  1996.65 / £  1760.25	Medical backup by local medical organization and by municipal sponsorship
Insurance	Accidents, liability insurance	500 participants	₪ 6000 $  1629.55 / €  1197.99 / £  1056.15	Different discounts possible
Catering	4 lunches and snacks throughout the day	500 participants * 4 days (additional lunch for 100 participants in hacking day)	₪ 160000 $  43454.64 / €  31946.33 / £  28164.06	some of which by sponsorships and through donations
Promotional materials	Brochures, flags, t-shirts, gifts, ID badges...	500 participants	₪ 80000 $  21727.32 / €  15973.17 / £  14082.03)	Some of which prepared by sponsors
Participant package	Programme, lecture overview, city plan, etc.	500 participants	₪ 20000 $  5431.83 / €  3993.29 / £  3520.51	In part to be covered by sponsors, Haifa municipality agreed to participate in part.
Transport	VIP to and from airport by shuttles, particpants - train tickets to Haifa, shuttles from train station to hotels and shuttles from hotels to venue	500 participants + 50 VIPs	₪ 83685 $  22728.14 / €  16708.93 / £  14730.68	Some of these costs to be covered by sponsors, a sponsorship of $3,000 already obtained
Organizing committee	volunteers (50), security		₪ 20000 $  5431.83 / €  3993.29 / £  3520.51)	provided in part by the Haifa University and the Municipality
Guests - VIP	all inclusive (accommodation at the Dan Panorama Hotels, transport, meals)	20 VIP's * 5 days	₪ 170200 $  46224.88 / €  33982.91 / £  29959.51)	In part by sponsorship
Scholarships		30 full scholarships	₪ 77700 $  21102.66 / €  15513.94 / £  13677.17	$700 per scholarship, We hope these to be covered by sponsors
Interpreters	volunteers	10 people	No costs
Parties	4 Parties for attendees (Early Comers Party, Opening cocktail, Shabat Dinner, Beach Party) - these include a full dinner buffet style, exept for the Shabat dinner which is a sit-down dinner. This item also includes entertainment for the parties	500 attendees (100 for early commers)	₪ 165000 $  44812.6 / €  32944.65 / £  29044.18	Haifa Municipality provides 2 of the three venues
	VIP party	80-100 VIPs	₪ 20000 $  5431.83 / €  3993.29 / £  3520.51	to be covered by sponsors; Haifa Municipality provides the venue
WikiExpedition	Tours, Museum passes, accommodation, fuel, etc - lunch for the participants.	250 participants	₪ 41650 $  11311.79 / €  8316.03 / £  7331.46	lunches to be covered by sponsors; Haifa municipality provides some of the tours. Guides will be professional volunteer guides
Unforeseen expenses			₪ 50000 $  13579.58 / €  9983.23 / £  8801.27	Amount obtained by Wikimedia Israel raised to ensure feasibility and security
Total			₪ 976215 $  265131.72 / €  194915.54 / £  171838.58

Comments:

Cost for Attendees

Our goal is to keep payment by the attendees as low as possible. We have already obtained funds through sponsorship and donations, enabling at least 150 participants who wish to stay at the dorms at no cost to do so (Negotiations with the dorms have already taken place and the costs will be subsidized in full by Wikimedia Israel). We hope to obtain additional funds and dorms rooms for 100 more participants. Other participants will only have to fund the flights and the hotel costs (subsidized hotel costs amount to a total of about $220 - $250 for five nights at a 3-star hotel, including a complete Israeli breakfast; Four nights would cost $180 - $200, and three nights about $120 - $150). Prices have been arranged with the hotels and about 200 rooms are available at said price (enabling about 500 participants to stay at double or triple occupancy rooms).

The above budget is based on raising sufficient funds to cover full board to all participants, and includes breakfast for the participants who stay at the dorms, and lunches and dinners for all participants.

It is our view that only minimal conference fees will be charged and that contributors to Wikimedia projects will not need to pay conference fees (for example, only from Israelis who are not contributors and who wish to attend the lunches and dinners will have to participate).

It should be noted that the conference itself is only three days, so participants who do not intend to attend the tours and the hacking days and do wish to stay at a four star hotel need only pay for the flights and about $120.

Possible sponsors and funds already obtained

We have planned the budget based on one catering proposal we have received and the bus company general fare. This was done in order to have an accurate evaluation of the amounts. We believe that via negotiation with several firms as well as the railway company, we may reduce the transportation budget by about 50% and the food budget by about 25% i.e. achieving a discount of about NIS 100,000.

We have approached many Israeli high tech companies and have requested sponsorship for the event. These companies include inter alia Teva, Elbit Systems, IBM Israel, Intel Israel, NetVision, Checkpoint, Google Israel, HP, Microsoft Israel. We hope that during the upcoming year we will be able to find sponsorship for the remaining NIS 800,000 that need to be raised. Several companies, as well as the Haifa University and the Haifa Municipality, have already agreed to sponsor some of the costs (detailed above as amounts already obtained).

we have already obtained about NIS 100,000 through sponsorships and donations.

Parties

This section of the budget is in fact the dinners served for the participants in a buffet style at the garden of the venue or at one of the other sited provided by the municipality. The cost is in fact the actual cost of the food and drinks for the entire participants of the conference as most entertainment costs and all venue costs are sponsored by the municipality. We place great importance on the socializing aspect of the event and these dinner parties are the tool we provide to facilitate this goal. We believe that an opportunity must be provided from the beginning of the event and all throughout the event to enable the participants to get to know each other, thus promoting social ties between different wiki communities.

VIP Budget

The 20 VIPs whose the travel and lodging expense are provided for in the budget are the key speakers, important guests speekers and the Foundation members. We understand that the Foundation usually cover these costs, however Wikimedia Israel hopes to find sponsorships to cover these costs as well. There are no VIP guests of Wikimedia Israel and the organizing committee, and were thinking mostly of special speakers.

Tours

The costs of the tours amount to $10,000. This includes buses for a whole day for 500 people, and lunches for all attendees. All tour guides (which will be professional) are volunteers, and all admission costs will be sponsored. As the registration for the tours will be in advance, we will know the actual amount, which may be lower. As mentioned, we view these tours as one of the tools we have to promote the social ties between the participants.

Visa requirements

Visa requirements for Israel are detailed on the website of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism [1], an updated list of visa requirements for each country is available on the website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs [2], and is the basis of the following information. All information refers to regular passports in usual circumstances.

General requirements

All visitors to Israel must possess a passport valid for at least 6 months ahead. Visa-free or regular tourist-visa visitors are usually allowed to stay in Israel for up to 90 days.

Annually, numerous international conventions take place in Israel, many of which in Haifa, in one of the two international convention centers in the city. We have spoken with both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Tourism Ministry, and the Haifa Municipality, with regards to obtaining visas for the participants. According to these officials, there is no problem for nationals of countries who do not have diplomatic ties with Israel to obtain visas to enter the country. These visas are granted on an individual basis, and after some security checks are made.

Some difficulties are expected when arranging visas to visitors from Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Yemen and maybe Afghanistan too. There are some other countries that technically do not allow their citizens to visit Israel, but do not mind much if they do, as long as they keep low profile while in Israel (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Gulf states, and a few others). International conferences are held in Israel quite often, occasionally with attendees from the aforementioned countries (the low profile strategy is probably the reason why these visits do not catch much attention). The Baha'i center in Haifa is the venue of this community's international conferences, despite the existence of a large Baha'i community in Iran. Reports in the Iranian press suggested that Iranian Baha'i leaders went occasionally to these conferences, though we cannot confirm these reports. Obtaining visas to Wikimania attendees presented some challenges in the past. When Wikimania was held in Alexandria, Iranian and Palestinian passport holders could not obtain a visa. Getting a visa to Taiwan and the US was not easy to all nationals, and yet Wikimania was successfully held in all of the aforementioned countries. In all cases the organizing teams did their best to extend help, and this time will not be an exception. Palestinians will not have a problem attending Wikimania in Haifa, as we can arrange entry permits for them quite easily.

A request for a visa may be filed through someone in Israel, in a third nearby country (for example - in Thailand or Hong Kong), or by mail through another country (through the US for example). Once the visa is obtained, entrance and exit from Israel is allowed. It should take about three weeks to process the visa application and costs about $21. As mentioned passports are not stamped in order to avoid causing problems to the guest when he gets back home.

We believe that given enough time in advance, we can assist in arranging visas for most if not all major participants who wish to attend the conference, and suggest that registration begin six months in advance. This will also better assist with logistics.

We are also planning to have volunteers waiting for participants at the airport arrivals hall to guide them through the passport control procedures if required.

Special issues

• No Israeli representation in my country - According to the website of the Israeli Ministry of Internal Affairs, a permanent resident of Israel can act on behalf of a foreign national in making the necessary arrangements for obtaining a tourist-visa in case there is no Israeli consulate in the applicant's country. The organizers will take the duty of acting on behalf of visitors who encounter such problem.
• The Palestinian Territories - Palestinians who live in the Palestinian Territories (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) are not considered foreign visitors, but enter Israel according to special arrangements. The organizers will extend their help should there be any hindrance in obtaining entry permit.

Visa-free access

Citizens of the following countries have visa-free access to Israel:

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Central African Republic

Lesotho

Malawi

Mauritius

South Africa

Swaziland

Hong Kong

Japan

Korea (Republic of)

Macao

Mongolia

Philippines

Bahamas

Barbados

Canada

Dominican Republic

Grenada

Haiti

Jamaica

Mexico

St. Kitts & Nevis

Trinidad and Tobago

United States

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Chile

Colombia

Costa Rica

Ecuador

El Salvador

Panama

Paraguay

Peru

Guatemala

Honduras

Suriname

Uruguay

- All member states of the European Union

Albania

Andorra

Croatia

Gibraltar

Iceland

Liechtenstein

Macedonia (F.Y.R.)

Monaco

Norway

Russia

San Marino

Switzerland

Australia

Fiji

Micronesia

New Zealand

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Visa required

Citizens of the following countries are required to get a visa in one of Israel's consulates around the world. Visa issuing costs US$ 17.

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Algeria

Angola

Benin

Botswana

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cameroon

Cape Verde

Chad

Comoros

Rep. of Congo

Dem. Rep. of Congo

Côte d'Ivoire

Djibouti

Egypt

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Ethiopia

Gabon

The Gambia

Ghana

Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Kenya

Liberia

Libya

Madagascar

Mali

Mauritania

Morocco

Mozambique

Namibia

Niger

Nigeria

Rwanda

São Tomé and Príncipe

Senegal

Sierra Leone

Somalia

Sudan

Tanzania

Togo

Tunisia

Uganda

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Afghanistan

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Bhutan

Burma (Myanmar)

Brunei

Cambodia

China (People's Rep. of)

Rep. of China (Taiwan)

India

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Korea, North

Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan

Laos

Lebanon

Malaysia

Maldives

Nepal

Oman

Pakistan

Syria

Tajikistan

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Seychelles

Singapore

Sri Lanka

Thailand

Timor-Leste

Turkmenistan

Uzbekistan

Vietnam

United Arab Emirates

Yemen

Antigua and Barbuda

Belize

Cuba

Dominica

Saint Lucia

St. Vincent & the Grenadines

Guyana

Venezuela

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Georgia

Serbia

Kosovan passports are accepted, visa is required

Montenegro

Moldova

Turkey

Ukraine

Marshall Islands

Nauru

Palau

Papua New Guinea

Samoa

Solomon Islands

Tonga

Tuvalu

Vanuatu

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Publicity and online broadcasting

• The Municipality of Haifa, as host of the conference, will install "Welcome to Haifa -- Wikimania 2011" signs in city entrance roads.
• The regional radio station (Haifa Radio) will be broadcasting live from the conference.
• Wikimedia Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be inviting foreign reporters to cover the event.
• As in last year's Wikipedia Academy which was held on Tel Aviv, the talks in the main auditorium will be broadcast live on the Internet site of Israel's Channel 2 (biggest commercial TV station), as well as on one of the major Israeli Web portals.

Live Feedback

• LCD screens will be installed in the open spaces between the conference rooms, displaying messages and updates about the conference from various social networks (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and occasionally live footage from the rooms, to attract people inside.
• The video team will prepare short clips for the opening and closing assemblies, conveying the atmosphere throughout the conference, and featuring brief sound bytes from participants, suitable for embedding in reports on social networks etc.

About Wikimedia Israel

Wikimedia Israel is an Israeli non-profit organization working in cooperation with the international Wikimedia Foundation. The organization is working to promote knowledge and education in Israel by gathering, creating and distributing free content. For the past two years Wikimedia Israel has participated in various projects involving the promotion of free contents and Wikimedia projects.

Wikimedia-Related Events in Israel

The first annual Wikipedia Academy in Israel took place last year, and included presentations about Wikipedia and Wiki technology in education (both secondary and academic). The conference, which was held in the Tel Aviv University, was a success, won wide media attention, and hosted about 250 participants. Wikimedia Israel organized the main event celebrating 100,000 articles in Hebrew Wikipedia. The event took place in the Tel Aviv University Law School, was attended by 100 wikipedians, and attracted, through the work of Wikimedia Israel, a wide media coverage. Wikimedia Israel organizes and financially assists the Elef Milim image gathering project, the Israeli Wikimedia Loves Art project, and wiki meetings throughout the year. Every year, between two to three wikimeets take place in Israel, attended by about 75 - 100 wikipedians. Since its founding, Wikimedia Israel organizes or assists in organizing the events.

Wiki meetings in Israel

Tel Aviv 2008	Haifa September 2008	IDC Herzelia 2006	January 2010 - Tel Aviv

Media relations

Wikimedia Israel has very good relations with the Israeli press. The Wikimedia Israel Spokesperson communicates daily with most of the reporters and editors. Most of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects got massive exposure and maximal press coverage. For example, Jimmy Wales's last visit to Israel and the Hebrew Wikipedia 100K articles celebrations got covered over all the national press – from TV news editions, through every major news website and newspaper, to regional and local radio stations and university magazines. Wikimedia Israel also has a pro-bono agreement with the "Donitza" PR firm for press and marketing strategy and press support.

Here is a list of known Israeli media with connection to Wikimedia Israel. The list does not include local media and international correspondents (like AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, etc.) with whom we work as needed.

Name	Type	Language	Level of Wikipedia-issues Coverage	Website
Channel 1 - Israel Broadcasting Authority	TV	Hebrew	Normal	iba.org.il
Channel 2 – Leading TV channel in Israel	TV, Internet	Hebrew	Normal	www.mako.co.il / www.reshet.ynet.co.il
Channel 10 – Leading TV channel in Israel	TV, Internet	Hebrew	Very Good	www.nana.co.il
Channel 9	TV	Russian	None
Israel National Radio	Radio, Internet	Hebrew, Arabic and International stations	Very good (on the Hebrew station)	www.iba.org.il
IDF Radio (Galey Tzahal)	Radio, Internet	Hebrew	Very Good	www.glz.co.il
Yedioth Achronot (Israel's leading newspaper, readership of over 75%, includes news, business and magazine supplements)	Newspaper	Hebrew	Very Good	www.ynet.co.il
Haaretz- An independent daily newspaper with a broadly liberal outlook both on domestic issues and on international affairs. It has a journalistic staff of some 330 reporters, writers and editors. Haaretz plays an important role in the shaping of public opinion and is read with care in government and decision-making circles.	Newspaper	Hebrew, English	Very Good	www.Haaretz.co.il
Maariv (The second largest newspaper in Israel)	Newspaper	Hebrew	Good	www.nrg.co.il
Israel Hayom- The most distributed free daily newspaper	Newspaper	Hebrew	Low	www.IsraelHayom.co.il
Jerusalem Post – Israel's best-selling daily paper in English and English website most read by Israelis	Newspaper	English	Low	www.jpost.co.il
The Marker - the leading business media and information source in Israel, with the biggest readership both in print and online of all business publications. It is published as part of Haaretz, one of Israel's biggest dailies.	Newspaper, Internet	Hebrew	Very Good	www.themarker.com
Globes - "Globes" is Israel's business newspaper.	Newspaper, Internet	Hebrew	Very Good	www.globes.co.il
Calcalist - A business daily that is part of the Yedioth Ahronoth Group, which is Israel's largest media group	Newspaper, Internet	Hebrew	Very Good	www.Calcalist.co.il
YNET- Most popular news website owned by Yediot Achronot media group	News Websites	Hebrew, English	Normal	www.ynet.co.il
NRG- news website of Maariv	News Websites	Hebrew	Good	www.nrg.co.il
WALLA- The largest private news website	News Websites	Hebrew	Good	www.walla.co.il
NANA- Managed by TV Channel 10	News Websites	Hebrew	Very Good	www.nana10.co.il
MAKO- Managed by Channel 2 News	News Websites	Hebrew	Good	www.mako.co.il
THE COM.- One of the leading websites covering technology, media and IT	News Websites	Hebrew	Very Good	www.Thecom.co.il
DailyMaily & Pc Magazine	News Websites	Hebrew	Very Good	www.pc.co.il

Our Team

Nick	Areas of responsibility	Skills	Languages	Experience
Deror Avi	Coordination, Venue	Attorney, translator and tour guide	he-N, en-N	Public speaking, Wikimeets organizer, Head of the Elef Milim Project, co-organized the Israeli Wiki-Academy
Shay Yakir	Coordination	Chairman of Wikimedia Israel	he-N, en-3	Public speaking
Liron Dorfman	Coordination, Accommodation	Works in the IT field. Studied Computer Science and Information Studies at the Bar-Ilan University.	he-N, en-5	Coordination of international education projects
Itzik Edri	Media coverage and public relations	Spokesperson of Wikimedia Israel, co-organized the Israeli Wiki-Academy	he-N, en-4	Media coverage and public relations
Asaf Bartov	Organization	Founding editor of Project Ben-Yehuda (the Hebrew Gutenberg Project); classicist; tour guide	he-N, en-N	Co-organized the Israeli Wiki-Academy in 2009; founded and chaired the Israeli Role-Playing Society NGO, produced multiple roleplaying conventions 1998-2003
Hana Yariv	Coordination, Venue	Holds BAs in Economics, Accountancy and Business Administration, all from Haifa University. Her passion is for archaeology, hence in Wikipedia, Hana contributes mainly in the Archaeology of Ancient Near East field.	he-N, en-5	Now a retiree, Hana worked as financial controller and CFO in several companies in Israel and served also as an implementer of Oracle ERP Finance module.
Harel Cain	Program committee, public speaking	Long time contributor to Hebrew Wikipedia, one of its three bureaucrats. I work as a security architect in a technology firm.	he-N, en-5, de-3	I held many public talks in various forums about Wikipedia, I serve on the audit panel of Wikimedia Israel and was one of its founders, and I attended Wikimania 2007.

Distances Gallery

Distance: Gallery of photos with approximate distance from the conference venue. The distance is measured according to google maps. For distances of travel by public transport - cost by bus.

• 
  The Mother's Garden (500 meters to where the photo was taken)
• 
  Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art (900 meters)
• 
  Bahai Gardens (1,200 meters)
• 
  The Louis Promenade (1,100 meters)
• 
  INS Dakar memorial at the Naval Museum (7000 meters) ₪ 6.40
  

  $  1.74 / €  1.28 / £ 

  1.13
• 
  Castra Arts and Crafts Center (6,600 meters) ₪ 6.40
  

  $  1.74 / €  1.28 / £ 

  1.13
• 
  The German Colony (4,900 meters) ₪ 6.40
  

  $  1.74 / €  1.28 / £ 

  1.13
• 
  Israeli National Maritime Museum (7,000 meters) ₪ 6.40
  

  $  1.74 / €  1.28 / £ 

  1.13
• 
  Israel National Museum of Science, Technology, and Space(4,300 meters) ₪ 6.40
  

  $  1.74 / €  1.28 / £ 

  1.13
• 
  Elijah's cave (7,000 meters) ₪ 6.40
  

  $  1.74 / €  1.28 / £ 

  1.13
• 
  Haifa Beaches (6,200 meters) ₪ 6.40
  

  $  1.74 / €  1.28 / £ 

  1.13
• 
  Stella Maris Monastery (3,700 meters) ₪ 6.40
  

  $  1.74 / €  1.28 / £ 

  1.13
• 
  Technion Obelisk by Santiago Calatrava (6,400 meters) ₪ 6.40
  

  $  1.74 / €  1.28 / £ 

  1.13
• 
  Dome of the Rock (160 kms) ₪ 56.40
  

  $  15.32 / €  11.26 / £ 

  9.93
• 
  Church of the Holy Sepulchre (160 kms) ₪ 56.40
  

  $  15.32 / €  11.26 / £ 

  9.93
• 
  Acre (Acco, Akko) (28.90 km) ₪ 24.5
  

  $  6.65 / €  4.89 / £ 

  4.31
• 
  Rosh HaNikra grottoes (47.60 km)

Support

• Letters of support
• 
  Mayor of Haifa
• 
  Ethos - The Haifa Company for Art, Culture and Sports
• 
  The Haifa University
• 
  Haifa University (cont'd)
• 
  Minister of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Government of Israel
• 
  Minister of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Government of Israel (cont'd)
• 
  The Israeli Internet Association
• 
  Kaltura support letter
• 
  SMA support letter
• 
  CC Israel support letter

The Haifa municipality and the Haifa University support hosting the conference in Haifa. We have further obtained the support of several companies.

Self-evaluation

Strengths

1. Haifa is a beautiful city, known for being a symbol of peaceful coexistence between Jews, Arabs, Christians, Muslims, Druze and Baha'i. It is also known for its wonderful beaches
2. Haifa is within one hour to one and a half hours drive from main tourist destinations in Israel: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the Galilee.
3. Haifa has two major universities: The Haifa University which has research centers focusing on the use of wiki technologies and the Technion - one of the leading technical institutes in the world.
4. Haifa is the heart of a cultural and industrial metropolis with good transportation systems and easy access to various multilingual media outlets.
5. Haifa is the location of MATAM - Israel's Silicon Valley, and the location of development centers for major Hi Tech companies such as Intel, Google, Microsoft, IBM and Elbit.
6. Wikimedia Israel is a very active chapter which has organized many conferences, wiki meets and events. It runs several large projects aimed at generating free content and the advancement of the foundation's goals. The chapter receives high esteem for its work, and has ties with both the Israeli government and various media outlets.

Weaknesses

1. The Haifa Airport is used only for flights from nearby Mediterranean countries. The major Israeli international airport - Ben Gurion Ariport, where international flights arrive from all countries, is 110km away.
   • However, excellent public transport links are available from the Ben Gurion Airport. This airport is about 75 minutes by train from a station inside the airport and about same by car (90-100 minutes during rush hours). Greeters will be stationed at the airport, to welcome all arrivals for the conference, as well as at the Haifa Hof Hacarmel Train Station. Transportation will be provided from the station to the hotels.
2. Israel is perceived as an expensive location and is not in the euro zone.
   • However, costs of hotels in Haifa, as well as cost of living is considerably lower than most European and North American cities, and it is also significantly cheaper than Tel Aviv.
   • Dorms provided at no cost for about 200 attendees will reduce expenses.
3. The Dorms are not within walking distance from the venue.
   • While the hotels are all located within short walking distance from the venue, the dorms are further away (25 minutes away by car in the rush hours). However, Wikimedia Israel will allocate funds to provide transportation on hourly basis (or more should it be needed, based on the number of attendants staying at the dorms) from the dorms to the venue, and vice versa. Such transportation will also be provided from the three main hotels to the venue (even though it is within a short distance).
4. Difficulties in obtaining tourist visas to nationals of certain Arab and Muslim countries.
   • The organizing team will be in close contact with the relevant Israeli authorities, in order to guarantee a visa to any participant who would encounter difficulties. Special arrangements for people who have to keep their visit to Israel secret (for personal safety in their home countries) are also available."

References