DebConf20/Bids/Haifa

Israel is a small country in the Middle East. That is: the other end of Asia. Climate is warm and sunny. Haifa is on the slopes of Mt. Carmel and thus provides a combination of sunny beaches as well as more moderate climate.

This bid is still under construction.

Venue

University of Haifa (specifically: its main campus) is located on the top of Mt. Carmel above Haifa.

The conference is to be held at the Hecht Auditorium. It has 380 seats and an on-stage pipe organ. There are various near-by classes available in the near-by Multi-Functional Building ([1]), along with a very wide corridor for the job fair and such.

Dormitories

We will use the Peldman dormiotries([2]). They are composed of clusters where each cluster has three rooms with a central room (a kitchen and alike). Each room has two beds and bathrooms. Each cluster has its own wifi router.

Potential Dates

The university can guarantee us the venue for the end of August (Aug-15 onward). It is possible that we may have a different date possible, but this is currently too soon to tell.

Local Team

• Tzafrir Cohen (DD)
• Lior Kaplan (DD)
• Shay Gover (Israeli Open Source supporter)
• Talat Batheesh (SW Eng)

Getting There

Flights land the the TLV (Ben Gurion) airport. From there normally by train to the city center of Haifa.

Through TLV (Ben Gurion) airport. From there by train to Haifa.

Visas

Visas are automatically granted automatically for the usual suspects. Specifically the following countries:

• all European Union member states, (Albania, )Andorra, Argentina, Australia, (Austria, )Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, (Belguim, )Botswana, Brazil, (Bulgaria, )Canada, Central African Republic, Chile, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, (Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, )Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, (Estonia, )Fiji, (Finland, France, )Georgia, (Germany, Greece, )Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, (Ireland, Italy, )Jamaica, Japan, (Latvia, )Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Macao, Macedonia, Malawi, (Malta, )Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, (Poland, Portugal, Romania, )Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, (Slovakia, Slovenia, )Solomon islands, South Africa, South Korea, (Spain, )Suriname, Swaziland, (Sweeden, )Switzerland, Taiwan, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Vanuatu.

See summary in Wikivoyage and official list (at the MFA site).

The following are countries with Debian Developers that require a visa:

• Bosnia Herzegovina
• China
• Cuba
• Egypt
• India
• Madagascar
• Thailand
• Turkey
• Venezuela

(Assuming that Debian Developers are a rough approximation of the target audience of Debconf)

Customs

Exempt from customs[3]:

• Wine: up to 2l
• Any other alcoholic drink: up to 1l
• Up to a total of 3 kg of food
• Up to 1kg of each type of food (wine is not food, I guess)

So far no excuse for not bringing up to 1kg of your favorite local cheese with you.

Transport

Public Transport

• Egged Buses
• Metronit
• (Yeah, Karmelit, as well)
• Service taxis

See

• Baha'i Gardens
• Stella Maris
• Wadi Nisnas

Food

Generally: plenty of food. As a side effect of the prevalence of kosher food, vegan options (such as hummus and falafel) are widely available.

Fill in.

Electricity

Israel uses European (50Hz, 220V) power supply and its own type H sockets, however if you can do without grounding, a europlug should work fine.