Istanbul is the most populous city of Turkey and is one of only 5 transcontinental cities in the world as it straddles both Europe and Asia. The city is home to around 14 million people and also enjoys vast influxes of visitors seeking history and culture, contributing to Istanbul being recognized as one of the world’s fastest growing metropolitan economies in the world. To support the millions of people in the city every day, there is a complex network of trams, funiculars, metro, buses, ferries and dolmus (minibuses) that the Moovit Team and Community Ambassadors manage the information for.
Inan, a graphic designer specializing in animation and motion graphics, is also Istanbul’s volunteer Community leader. Inan joined the Moovit Community when he became interested in finding a community-based public transportation app that he could contribute to in the same way as Openstreetmap. Inan relies heavily on public transport, noting, “I’ve been using public transport since childhood and I love the community project and try to support it as much as possible.”
Inan was invited to become an Ambassador for the city after he showed a clear enthusiasm and passion. Inan tells us that being asked to be the Ambassador for Istanbul was a great achievement. We asked Inan if becoming an Ambassador has influenced his contributions to the Community in anyway and he explained that he has interestingly started checking and analyzing the application in a more detailed way. He elaborates on how important this is for Istanbul as the transport network is incredibly complex and there are multiple independent transit agencies whom Inan is trying to contact to gather information from. He tells us, “I feel like I am playing a computer game and I’ve reached the highest nightmarish level, but I do still really enjoy it.”
For his next challenge Inan tells us, “I plan to get people to come together with other editors and plan a mapathon, as others have done in other countries.” We look forward to hearing more about the mapathon soon!