SPORTS INFORMATION BANK (SIB)
Ministry of Youth and Sports

A. Problem Analysis

 1. What was the problem before the implementation of the initiative?
The term “sports” is derived from Latin meaning to move and refers to all the movements done generally to compete. However, nowadays sports is not limited to the competitions. In such a motionless environment people are encouraged to do sports. Our body consistently needs to move. In a motionless environment, almost all of the organs start to go down. Because of the technological developments of 20th century, machines electronic systems take the place of hand power. On the other hand, television and computer lead to an addiction and especially the children and youth reduce the time they allocate for sports. In our era, the importance of recreational activities gradually increase and the initiatives to build the facilities are on progress. According to the researches carried out in 2011, in Turkey life expectancy is 73 for the males, 76 for the females. In Germany it is 80 for the males, 82 for the females. Average life expectancy is over 80 in developed countries such as USA, Japan, France, Germany and Finland. Besides, Professor Dr. Thomas Perls, director of New England Centenarian Study (NECS) carried out many researches over the people above 100 and stated life style is much more important than the genes. In his interview in Newsweek, he stated average life expectancy is not so different if socio-economic levels are identical and the rate is generally 5-6 per thousand. However, in general terms, if the average life expectancy is high, it means this society smoke and consume alcohol less. According to the data imported in 2011, target date of the project, the number of the athletes in Turkey is less than the other European countries. Incapacity of substructures in Turkey is quite obvious. Moreover, despite the numerous sports facilities, only %10 people do sports in Turkey and this rate is terribly less compared to the other European countries. It is required to raise the position of Turkey in sports as in most of the developed European countries. Table 1: Population of Turkey and Some European Countries, The number of the Athletes and Percentage Distribution of the Athletes (Data of Fırat University) Country Name Population Number of Athletes Population/ Number of Athletes Athlete According to the Population % Luxemburg 378.400 120.000 3.15 31.77 Germany 80.000.000 24.000.000 3.33 30.00 Netherland 15.000.000 4.000.000 3.75 26.66 Italy 57.080.000 14.000.000 4.07 24.52 France 55.000.000 13.000.000 4.23 23.63 Portugal 10.500.000 2.000.000 5.25 19.04 Belgium 10.000.000 1.500.000 6.66 15.00 England 57.411.000 6.500.000 8.83 11.32 Turkey 65.973.000 574.022 114.93 00.83 Within the scope of the project, in a research carried out to reveal sports perception in Turkey and the reasons for not doing sports, individuals perceive the sports as • spare time activity • an important activity for physical and mental health • life style • helpful for relaxation and purifying from stress • keeping away from bad habits • helpful for being fit. However, they point out the reasons for not doing sports as • limited time • unwillingness • laziness • lack of facilities • being far away from the facilities • being far away from the friends • overpricing • trainer control • insufficiency of doing sports • not needing or not realizing the need • lack of ability • difficulty • lack of family support • lack of sports program assisted by the Government • lack of support for the clubs • carefreeness • not making a habit of • losing the elasticity on following ages. As shown in the research, individuals have some problems about lack of facilities and transportation to there; they even do not know which sports is in which facility. Because of that reason, it is concluded that individuals cannot do sports.

B. Strategic Approach

 2. What was the solution?
The world technology has exhibited high-level developments in many areas during the last century. One of the important areas of this development is the Internet. According to the results of the Household Survey on Information Technology Usage for 2011, 47,2% of the houses throughout Turkey had access to the Internet. In addition to this, the use of smart phones, which are increasingly getting more common, increases the use of mobile Internet, too. According to the data for 2011, the rate of smart phone use in Turkey was 15%, and the increase in the rate of use was found to be higher than the world average. These data have made the use of technology and the Internet inevitable for our citizens to access to the sports facilities, for learning which sports branches are applicable at a certain facility, and for the solution of problems related to the insufficiency of sports facilities. This initiative aims to increase the level of use of our sports facilities by our citizens and to create a society that engages in sports. It is the Department of Information Technologies of the Ministry of Youth and Sports that has found this solution for the realization of the mentioned aim. The Department of Information Technologies has carried out the necessary works to determine what the application for the solution will include and what will be the production criteria of the system, and cooperation was established with Netcad software company for the development of the application. The project “Sports Information Bank of Turkey”, which is being run throughout Turkey by our Ministry, is an important project in terms of the Turkish sports history. Through this project, the sports facilities and the immovable properties in 81 provinces have been transferred to digital media, and it is possible to reach all the data about a certain facility online thanks to smart maps. By using the web or mobile interface of our project, our citizens can query the sports facilities with suitable infrastructure for their desired sports branch, they can find out where the closest sports facility is, and they can view in detail how they can reach the queried facility through the use of location information and by also seeing the directions on the map. Before the project was put into practice, the structural features, capacities and restoration statuses of the Ministry’s facilities were followed up by the central and provincial organizations of the Ministry. With this project, a location-based inventory of our facilities has been created and it has been possible to keep the information on the facilities up-to-date. Moreover, the project also aimed to facilitate the entrance of our citizens into the sports facilities through the sport cards, which have been distributed under the project, and to provide them with statistics by keeping the records about the sports they have engaged in at the sports facilities. In order to be an official athlete in any sports branch and to actively engage in that sports branch in our country, the athletes are required to obtain a license through some procedures. For each different sports branch, the athletes were required to obtain a separate license from the federation of that specific sports branch. Sport card eliminated the requirement for the individuals to get a license. Furthermore, all the information about an athlete in relation to any sports branch is kept in the sport card. The information about the weight and individual muscle structure of the sport card holders are recorded and thereby they are enabled to engage in sports in a healthy and efficient way.

 3. How did the initiative solve the problem and improve people’s lives?
One of the components of sports is sports facilities. The number and variety of sports facilities, community expectations and needs related to sport have an important role in the promotion of sports. According to an article published in the Journal of Sports Sciences of Hacettepe University in 2011 our people % 15.8 are complain couldn’t find sports media serving for their branches. Our people usually use the private gyms for sports but did not use the sports facilities subscribe to our Ministry. It was determined that the problem result from ignorance about where our Ministry facilities, which sports was made in these facilities and what is the use case of these facilities. Within this project the interface has been an important step towards the expansion of the sport in the in terms of answer the question of citizens where and which kind of sports to be done. Allocated to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, rented, the rent, matter for the courts, to sell, all of the data property data, land-zoning information, facility and building usage information (floor units, m2, building type, purpose of use, expenses, building photos, etc..), rent-tenant information, correspondence of any decision belonging to the defendant estate’s related to land registry records (about if there is any debt) of all the immovable and facilities to be purchased integrated with geographic data determined by the relevant departments according to their level of competence is reached, changing, updating, querying and reporting activities to be done under developed project by tapping into our web interface are creative and innovative aspects of the project. Together with put our project into effect, elimination of required to obtain the license of each branch has been a factor encouraging individuals to make the sport. With sports information bank project our people have begun to emerge sports trends and it has become a reference to our Ministry in terms of the qualifications required carrying by our sports facilities. This system has created a pool of information for administrators and its members. Users has been able to follow condition by seeing when they entered facilities, how long they remained in the facilities and how many calories they spend. Recording ailments and injuries which will prevent athletes from doing sports has been an important contribution when they had similar or different injury results in terms of ease of interference to health problems. Performances of the athletes on their sport still be recorded with sports cards has facilitated the detection of degradation in performance.

C. Execution and Implementation

 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
• Project analysis report is written by discussing the purpose and objectives of the project, • By subtracting the project life cycle historical points of the process are determined. • The project's software-tender has been done and Netcad Company has been identified as a contractor. • Netcad company has clarified analysis processes of software developers, business analysts and personnel to use the application, • Netcad firm, software to build the infrastructure database and has UML diagrams including tabular relationship and has been studied about the suitability of our database to the Ministry, • Carrying into execution in Net platform, • Software loaded into the test environment and has been tested, • Videos on use has been prepared in the context of dissemination, • For application pilot study areas have been identified, • Successful application in pilot project has been extended to the entire field. Project website : tesisrehberi.gsb.gov.tr User name: gsb_standart Password : gsb123

 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
Exchange information has been made by contacting with the municipalities and ministries about “Turkey Sports Data Bank” project. A protocol has been signed with Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning, General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre in relation to using of Land Registry and Cadastre Information System (TAKBİS). The soft tender of the project has been made and Netcad has been designated as the contractor firm. We have been worked with Kule Film in the field works about taking photos of sports facilities in our 81 provinces. In the test phase, we have been worked with the personnel working in IT Department of our Ministry and in Provincial Directorates of Youth and Sports.
 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
The number of people working in this project: Head of Department: 1 Department Manager: 1 Computer Engineer: 1 Analyzer: 2 Programmer: 1 Project Manager: 1 Analyst: 1 Database Specialist: 1 Geographic Information System Specialist: 3 IT Specialist: 2 Film Director: 1 Director of Photography: 1 Jimmy Jib Operator and Cameraman: 1 Director of Editing: 1 Photograph Artist: 1 Any hardware investment has not been made for this application, because we have planned to benefit from our infrastructure as IT Department of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. We have gone out to tender and dealt with Netcad about software. The funding about software has been provided by our Ministry. In the development process of application, computer engineers of our Ministry have analyzed the software in terms of efficiency and utility. They have always tested the software in terms of security. The stated problems have been solved and the software has progressed to its lifecycle.

 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
We aim to take inventory of sports facilities and to increase using of these facilities with the Sports Data Bank project. Thanks to this software, public’s awareness of sports facilities has been raised and people have no barriers about doing sports. For example; a person who wants to play basketball, can benefit from the web site of Sports Data Bank and check the list of basketball facilities from near to the farthest in Turkey. Also he/she can see these facilities on the Turkish map. This person can learn how to go to any facility by signing road information on the map. Any citizen can enter to the facilities by using sports card. In our society, high level socio economic groups are generally doing sports. Thanks to this project, medium and low level socio economic groups have been encouraged to do sports because of benefiting from the facilities by paying no money. Thus, equal opportunity has been provided on benefiting from sports. As the best example, we can say that people, who have never done sports in their lives, can do sports now thanks to this project. Moreover, the project has provided to use less paper between central and provincial organisations. This project has affected the environment positively; activated working time; made savings of time, workforce and paper; lowered the costs and increased labour productivity.

 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
A commission comprised of a branch director and two analyzers from our Department was established to follow up the Sports Data Bank Project. This commission helps solving our citizens’ problems related to the use of sports card and any other problems or complains regarding the facilities defined in the sports data bank. In case a new facility is opened, they contribute to its integration into the system. A maintenance agreement was made with the contractor company Netcad for possible problems in the web interface. The contractor company has been beneficial for the effective operation of the system by their immediate intervention.

 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
After the Sports Data Bank project was put into practice, a perception arouse among our people regarding that the facilities would be very crowded as their access became easier. Besides, some problems were faced regarding the use of our software. Videos concerning to the utilization of the software were prepared and published in our web site. In the process of putting the project into practice, the Provincial Directorates of our Ministry faced some problems in the use of the system arising from lack of knowledge. Problems regarding the maintenance services of the technological infrastructure placed in the facilities for using the sports cards. Necessary agreements were signed to provide maintenance services and precautions were taken to interfere as soon as possible. The problems detected in popularizing the sports cards were that some people forget to swipe the cards in the entrances of the facilities or that some people dislike swiping the cards. Our officers in the facilities were warned in order to increase the utilization of the cards and eliminate such problems. There were lack of information about our facilities’ qualifications (room number, ambulance entrance, wheelchair ramp) and the features of the sports branches to be used in the development of the project’s web site. By requesting information from the federations and the provincial directorates, we tried to overcome the problem. However, there were some differences among the information we asked for, so we prepared the information of three sports branches’ features. We officially conveyed it to all the federations and provincial directorates as a template and it was also published in our website. In order to integrate the sports facilities in the ownership of other public institutions, we requested other public institutions to send us the information about their sports facilities. As we could not get written responses to our request, we prepared a form concerning this request and published it in our website. We ask the institutions to fill the forms with the information about their facilities, so that they were registered to the system.

D. Impact and Sustainability

 10. What were the key benefits resulting from this initiative?
The statically reporting of the project for foundations and all data, the facilities of displaying graphics, map locations and the facility of accessing the photos and unlimited user, providing the facility of keeping up to date of the data with the universal applications affect the public services positively. Reaching the most current aspect of inventories respect to the sports as environmental and a feature, the pursuit of sports facilities and premises, the Integration of Premises Information System Application have created the difference about public applications. By means of Sports Guidance Application, each part of the public, public institutions and investors have found opportunity for accessing the information about location related to sports facilities and name information in cities where they reside. And also they have found opportunity for experiencing sports types which will be hold in this city and the normal and panoramic photos of the facilities. This has been a work which has integrated the public with citizens and also this has been a work which has changed the ancient idea that public has an ungainly structure. When it's thought that sport is both an inevitable activity in order that life goes on in a healthier way and a symbol of the development, the public has found an opportunity for regarding the sport which is developing in their country in a healthier way.

 11. Did the initiative improve integrity and/or accountability in public service? (If applicable)
During the public service is provided in national level, the project will go on and it'll be interiozed by public and also it'll continue to get closer public with citizens. Furthermore it'll continue to encourage public to live within sport and it will enlarge toward needing in due course. The work toward the improving of Turkey Sport Information Bank Applications and reflecting regulation changes to the software, the evaluation of error and proposal demands coming from users and so making required changes are sustained uninterruptedly. Thus Turkey Sport Information Bank applications are being get more precise and more user-friendly day by day. The project is kept up to date and it's usable by adding each facility in Turkey to the 'sport information bank'. Sport facilities available within all of public institutions have come to light through the involvement of our citizens with influence area. Being seen in which city and where and which sport facility is situated has been beneficial for feasibility studies of private sector entrepreneurs who want to give service in order that public can do the sport as a reference. Hence influence area contains also special approaches apart from public and citizen aspects. In this respect it's sustainable in financial, social, economic and institutional aspects.

 12. Were special measures put in place to ensure that the initiative benefits women and girls and improves the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable? (If applicable)
It has been provided that citizens discover the sport facilities and access the information about facilities, dormitories, youth centers and administrative building. Thus concrete data have been revealed with supported by photos and more clear data instead of second hand information. Our project is an important experiment in respect to equalizing with expanding the project to the general. Before the project process, usage cases of facilities, deficiencies were provided with information given by provincial staff. The structural situation of the facility, its administrative and financial, land title and usage information were made accessible at any time by means of this project. It was taken lessons from deficiencies related to benefiting from facilities during the project process. Citizens determining the deficiencies of facilities and being provided that sport facilities take shape from citizen's request and wish because citizens benefit from the facilities, has lead to create the aspect of "the public pleasure in facilities". There was a weak bond between central organization and county organization before carrying out the project. A waste of time was in question while the information was being transferred to the central organization. It was required a precise time and workload to access to information of facilities. In order to access administrative information, authorized person had to access to staff who took place in that head of department and so there was a waste of paper and time. It was reached easily all of the archive information at will with this project.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Ministry of Youth and Sports
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Türker Turan YILDIZ
Title:   Head Of IT Department  
Telephone/ Fax:   +903125966000
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   harun.bahadir@gsb.gov.tr  
Address:   Örnek St. Oruç Reis St. No:13 Altındağ / Ankara
Postal Code:   06560
City:   ANKARA
State/Province:  
Country:  

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