End of an era

ocfshuttingdown

Hello OCF members,

Last night OCF's volunteer staff unanimously decided to close lab
services, including free printing, after Spring 2012.

OCF, as with other student groups in Eshleman Hall, will be moved out of
the building in August before it is demolished as part of Bears
Initiative. Until new space is obtained elsewhere on campus, we have
been allocated temporary space in Hearst Gymnasium basement for the
duration of Lower Sproul construction, which is projected to last for
at least 3 years.

This area is limited both in space and technical resources, and we feel
that it would be a disservice to all OCF members to provide an
unreliable and inadequate level of service, in both quality and
quantity. We would not be able to fit much of our computing and
printing equipment into the space allotted to us, and time constraints
limit what can be set up before the fall semester begins.

We understand and share your concern for the OCF. We too are students
and members of the OCF. This is a drastic change for the organization,
which has had a lab since 1989.

We want to restore the lab and its services as soon as possible, but we
must also keep in mind the process of our last two moves (to Heller
Lounge in the MLK Student Union, and to our present location in
Eshleman). It would be dishonest if we were not to give notice of lab
downtime, which has been unavoidable and excessive during each move.
Furthermore, the compressed space and needs of other student groups
constrain us more than in the past.

We hope that by shifting resources, we will be able to compensate by
expanding our other services, including currently web hosting, disk
space, email, and shell accounts, and ensure that they would not be
disrupted by a move as they have been before. We are looking at our
options for negotiating server space and we will continue hosting
websites, including those of student groups. We will better assist
other students and student groups as a technical resource given our
close proximity in the temporary space, and encourage you to make use
of what we would be able to offer.

We will be considering all options, including other space if available,
and appreciate any feedback or advice you can offer. We don't want to
let you down...

Good luck on finals guys,
OCF staff members,
Eshleman basement

P.S. One of the printers is broken, so printing might be slower than
we'd hope, but please, enjoy our lab while it lasts. 9am-9pm hours
during dead week and finals, see our website for more info.

[*] http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu

You have received this announcement to update you about important
changes to the OCF. The Open Computing Facility is an all-volunteer
student organization providing free shell accounts, disk space, web
hosting, email, and printing from a lab, lounge, and server room in
Eshelman Hall.