The Open Computing Facility provides free computing services to student, faculty, and staff, ranging from free printing to expiration-free web space to UNIX shell accounts to email. Furthermore, the OCF operates a highly frequented long-hours computing lab with a generally high volunteer-staff-to-user ratio for accessible in-person support, as well as online support. In addition to these user services, the group also hosts a bulk of the student group websites, and provides support to both them and fellow organizations on campus.
To be able to do this, we are always aiming to secure more resources to fully meet the needs of everyone in the campus community. Our primary resources are our UNIX workstations and UNIX servers, mostly Sun Sparc, and Windows workstations - entirely administered by student volunteers, previously located in Heller Lounge (2nd level) of the MLK Student Union and 72 Barrows Hall. As of the summer of 2008, these resources are located within our computing lab on the ground floor of Eshleman Hall.
To help people explore the field of computing and educate them about the resources available, the OCF also provides a variety of educational services. We used to co-sponsor a series of Help Sessions, short classes taught throughout the semester on a wide range of computing topics, from beginner to advanced levels, and focusing on resources available to the Berkeley campus community. These now take the form of DeCal courses offered by us. We also offer e-mail and in-person consulting with our volunteer staff members, as well as online sources of information about computing on the Berkeley campus and how to use the available resources. Additionally, the OCF has conducted career fairs in the past with its sister organization, the Computer Science Undergraduate Association.
Policies for this cluster and decisions for the OCF organization are made by the OCF Board of Directors, a group of students elected each semester by the OCF membership. The Board meetings, held at least once every two weeks when classes are in session, are open to the public and provide a chance for any user to express their concerns or opinions about the OCF.The OCF also runs the www.ocf.berkeley.edu http server and the ftp.ocf.berkeley.edu anonymous ftp server.
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