_______________________________________________________________________________ From: "Paul R. Gilbertson" Date: Sun, 14 May 1995 07:20:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Please As a new Internet user this year, and a member of the staff of the Graduate Theological Union, I have found the OCF services very helpful. It would certainly be my hope that the OCF would be allowed to continue making their facility available to the students and staff who are new to the system. I is very "user friendly". Thank you for your support. Rev. Paul R. Gilbertson Vice President for Seminary Advancement Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary _______________________________________________________________________________ From: UC Ballroom Dancers Date: Sun, 14 May 1995 14:00:13 -0700 (PDT) Subject: OCF Needed Hi. Just wanted to put in my two cents to support the OCF -- it has provided a useful service for my campus club by helping us forward announcements to over 150 members. Some of our members also use the OCF machines to receive electronic mail. It would be a shame to displace one of the only free computing resources for students to make space for some campus office. Yours truly, Ronnen Levinson. _______________________________________________________________________________ From: qtluong@bach.eecs.berkeley.edu (Quang-Tuan Luong) Date: Sun, 14 May 1995 16:45:25 -0700 Subject: Re: OCF needs your help to fight eviction Although I am not an ocf user, I would like to express my support to you. I personnally spend at least an hour per day using the different services provided by internet, and I have found that they play an increasing role in my work, as well as in assisting me to pursue my personnal interests. Therefore I think it is of prime importance that any person affiliated with UCB can access a quality computer account providing internet connection, as well as standard computing facilities. My understanding is that ocf has done an extremely good job at faciliting such an access, which place the campus well ahead other institutions that I have known. I therefore wish that they will not be evicted for such a futile reason as lack of space. Tuan. -- Quang-Tuan LUONG, Post-Doc. qtluong@robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu 485 Soda Hall, Comp Sc, U. of California, Berkeley CA 94720-1776 USA +1(510) 642-5029 http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/ _______________________________________________________________________________ From: Ryan Hamilton Date: Sun, 14 May 1995 20:27:55 -0700 Subject: Re: OCF needs your help to fight eviction To whom it may concern, The Open Computing Facility has provided an important and unique resource for the students of this University for a long time. In order for the OCF to contiune, it is essential that there be space for the cluster of machines that the OCF runs. Recent decisions by Information Systems and Technology suggests that the University is planning to move the OCF from its space in the WEB. I am writing to voice my extreme oposition to this action. The University is clearly here to serve the students, and it would be a terrible mistake if the University was to go against the will of the students and take the space from the OCF. I ask you both as a student, and as an elected representative of the students to allow the OCF to remain in the WEB. Sincerely, Ryan Hamilton -- ASUC Executive Vice President _______________________________________________________________________________ From: Cal Band Alumni Association Date: Sun, 14 May 1995 22:55:13 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Don't kill the ocf! I'm writing to express my support for maintaining the ocf. I am the secretary of the Cal Band Alumni Association, and I use my account to administer an e-mail list of Cal band alumni on the internet. We use this list the keep close to the Band and to the University. We donate money to the University! Please don't shut us down! Kathy Heilmann CBAA Secretary bandalum@ocf _______________________________________________________________________________ From: elin@sunspot.ssl.berkeley.edu (Erika Lin) Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 10:35:55 -0700 Subject: OCF needs your help to fight eviction 1602 Edith Street, # B Berkeley, CA 94703 May 15, 1995 To whom it may concern: Please register my support of the Open Computing Facility (OCF) and their search for physical space on campus appropriate to support the more than twenty computers they currently operate as a service to the campus community. The OCF provides a much-needed service on campus--free Internet access for students. With the growth of the information superhighway, more and more business is being conducted via email and over the network. Students at many universities are given free email access and better computer services than we at Berkeley. The University of Maryland at College Park and the University of Texas at Austin are just two of the many publicly funded in- stitutions of higher learning that make computer resources a priority. Their students have an edge that students at Berkeley cannot have without the same kinds of resources being made available. The OCF provides this service to the campus community. Without the OCF, the limited financial resources of most students would mean they are not be able to access the Internet at all. The well-spring of resources available to further their education would be cut off from them. Most, if not all, of the OCF's machines were donated by various organiza- tions who understand that Internet access for students is of vital impor- tance to education today. The machines are operated by student volunteers. The physical site is staffed by these same volunteers who are always willing to educate other students in the sorting through the many resources available to them on the Internet. The OCF is well-organized with an elected Board of Directors, monthly meetings, and published minutes to those meetings. All they ask for is a space from which to operate. Is that really so very much? As members of the campus community, we are all well aware of the important role the OCF serves in our computing resources on campus. Let us support their fine effort by providing them with an adequate new home on campus. Sincerely, Erika T. Lin System administrator, Space Sciences Laboratory B.A. in English, UCB, May 1994 _______________________________________________________________________________ From: jeg@wohler.regis.berkeley.edu Date: Mon, 15 May 95 12:00:55 -0700 Subject: Re: OCF needs your help to fight eviction When I administered the unix machines at the College of Environmental Design, I needed to hire an assistant. The only qualified canidates that applied were from the OCF. The OCF provides great experience for students who volunteer, they get to administer a network with all of the problems of a large site. This is a unique resource and a great advantage to the university. --James Ganong _______________________________________________________________________________ From: Circle K. International Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 13:48:48 -0700 Subject: We Need You To Whom It May Concern, I sincerely hope that the Open Computing Facility at UC Berkeley is not closed, since it provides a vital service for us, the Circle K club here on campus. Having a club e-mail account allows us to contact our members about upcoming events. They can also mail us, or finger the account for the latest information. Please reconsider this decision. Thanks for your time. -CKI _______________________________________________________________________________ From: thetruth@maelstrom.berkeley.edu It's really great being able to use OCF, as we can make use of the special features that OCF provides for users of fingerlog and finger with extensions. It's also an excellent way to diseminate information about our club. Also, OCF has been the only way for our club to maintain any campus internet account at all, since uclink and uclink2 have no longer allowed us to have an account there... Thanks for listening. Students for the Truth Judy (Ying) Chen Annie Chang David Nathan Vigil James Temple Sarah Sun Aaron Yeow Rebecca Chang Daniel Lee Chris Hwang Hua Chen Josephine Chang Jenny Chiang Bryan Chen Darren Buesen Felicia Chang Esther Ho _______________________________________________________________________________ From: The Active Intellect Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 18:19:00 -0700 (PDT) Subject: OCF Support The Active Intellect is very grateful for having OCF available. It offers e-mail accounts for student groups as well as individual students when the other campus networks can not accomodate them. We would be very saddened to see the OCF lose its facilities. The Active Intellect Board UCB Undergraduate Journal _______________________________________________________________________________ From: David Winet Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 21:47:34 -0700 Subject: Don't Evict OCF! As an instructor teaching computer skills at UC Extension I have found OCF to be far superior to other UCB systems. Their interest in exploring the potential of the Internet is much greater than I have found in other systems, which tend to be hidebound and top heavy, not to mention somewhat technophobic (for example, UCLink is still running a version of Pine, the email program, that is two years out of date! Leave OCF alone, please! They are a valuable resource for the academic com- munity *and* the teaching staff. David Winet English Language Program UCB Extension _______________________________________________________________________________ From: Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 22:07:51 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Not just students Many campus organizations and programs use OCF for internet resources such as mailing lists and web pages. Who, Chancellor, else would house these resources so expertly-- FOR FREE? Michael J. Osofsky IISME Telecom Coordinator _______________________________________________________________________________ From: jsegal@ICSI.Berkeley.EDU (Jonathan Segal) Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 22:48:40 -0700 Subject: I support OCF You can add this to your list of OCF-supporting notes. I commend OCF for the services they provide, to the 12,000 OCF account-holders who would otherwise not have an account, to the other thousands of non-OCF account holders who still benefit from OCF resources, and to the OCF volunteers who gain valuable technical experience. It would be a shame if UC Berkeley, with its fine tradition of excellence in technological development, would cut off the thousands of OCF users from the Internet, especially considering how Internet familiarity and connectivity is growing increasingly important in every field of education, research, business, and government. Eliminating the services OCF provides would be doing a grave disservice to thousands of students who benefit greatly from it at little cost to the university, for seemingly little gain. -Jonathan Segal Graduate Student, Dept. of Linguistics. jsegal@icsi.berkeley.edu _______________________________________________________________________________ From: Band Cal Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 16:30:31 -0700 (PDT) Subject: The OCF is an important resource. To whom it may concern: I am the assistant systems administrator for the Cal Band. We have always viewed the OCF as an important asset to several different areas in our organization. Several times in the past both professional staff and members of the band have been in need of email accounts or some way of communication via email, and the OCF has been there to provide us with the necessary resources both promptly and free of charge. Additionally, the OCF has been the home of our FTP site, gopher site, and mailing lists for approx. 3 years, and home to our WWW Home Page for 2 years. Most of these are resources which no other computing cluster on the campus would be willing to provide. The mailing lists in particular act as our chief method of communication amongst the band, and would place an incredible burden on our staff if they were removed. Additionally, our WWW Home Page serves as an information site to thousands of people around the world who view it on a regular basis, providing us with means of both publicity and recruiting via the Internet. Without the OCF we would be at a great loss. A vast majority of our members would be without email accounts and we would be without many of our most important resources of communication with not only our members but also with recruits, alumni, backers, supporters, fans, and friends around the world. I urge you to reconsider any actions which may interrupt services provided by the OCF. Thank you. Sincerely, ShaColby Jackson Cal Band Assistant Systems Administrator _______________________________________________________________________________ From: eliot@pixar.com (Eliot Smyrl) Date: Wed, 17 May 95 17:24 PDT Subject: OCF I would like to express my support for OCF's desire to remain in the WEB. The facility provides a unique service to a large campus community, and should be SUPPORTED, not shut down. Berkeley has been known worldwide for advances in campus computing, and it would be a shame to blot this excellent record in this way. Please keep the OCF open. - Eliot Smyrl eliot@pixar.com B.S. EECS '87 M.S. CS '89 _______________________________________________________________________________ From: Dan Isaksen Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 20:07:00 -0500 (CDT) Subject: WEB space In my time at Berkeley from 1990 to 1994, I witnessed the development of the OCF from a small group of computer experts to a large and important computer resource for the entire campus community. With its emphasis on supplying computer access for purposes that are not strictly academic, the OCF allows members of the campus community to explore and learn in ways that other clusters do not allow. In short, the OCF is an essential part of the richly varying opportunities available at Berkeley. It would be quite a shame to see that opportunity erased. Dan Isaksen Mathematics, BA 1994 Graduate Student, Mathematics, University of Chicago dci@math.uchicago.edu _______________________________________________________________________________ From: Steve Ragle Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 18:01:21 -0700 Subject: Open Computing Facility Dear Chancellor Tien, I hope some way will be found to allow OCF to continue to provide access to email for its users. As an alumni, I like to be able to stay in touch with my fellow former Cal Band members. The alumni announcements also help keep me aware and interested in what's going on at Cal. Sincerely, Steve Ragle Steve Ragle stever@cellnet.com 415/508-6070 voice/fax CellNet Data Systems, Inc. 415/508-6700 fax 125 Shoreway Road 415/592-6858 fax San Carlos, CA 94070 ----- Begin Included Message ----- The Band has depended on the OCF for several years to support our electronic presence--FTP, gopher, and WWW sites, mailing lists, departmental accounts, and more. The OCF has also been the primary location where the CBAA has found computer resources on campus. Like the Band, the OCF is completely student organized and run. The OCF also receives no money from the University, just space and power. ----- End Included Message ----- _______________________________________________________________________________ From: "randy chong" Date: Wed, 17 May 95 22:39:30 PST Subject: TIen Please forward this note to Chancellor Tien Chancellor Tien, It my understanding that if the OCF doesn't receive funding it will shut down. I am writing in support of the computer service that granted me my first access to the internet. Through this service I could peek at the future in modern communications. Through the OCF account, I was able to mail friends and relatives instantly and cut down on my phone bill. Through OCF, I also met many people including my present girlfriend, and was able to obtain my first job out of college. Refusing funding for the OCF would be a disservice to thousands of students and alumni who keep in touch with the university through OCF mail lists, such as the Cal Band Alumni list. If alums don't keep in touch with CAL, we may become apathetic to the events at our alma mater. Please, Chancellor Tien, for the sake of our students, faculty, and alumni, provide some funding to the OCF facility to upgrade their computers. Thank you Randy Chong '94 _______________________________________________________________________________ From: "Toby Halliday (703) 604-5675" Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 09:28:54 -0400 (EDT) Subject: OCF Resources I am writing to express my strong support for the OCF resources that enable me to maintain some level of contact with Cal. When I moved to the east coast after graduating from Cal in 1986, it was very difficult for me to maintain any sort of links with the University. Although I have always remembered my days at Cal, including my four years serving with the Cal Band, with great fondness, I felt an increasing sense of detachment from the University over the years. About a year ago a Cal Band friend told me about a bulletin board service operated by the Band and administered by something called the Open Computer Facility. Since joining the Cal Band discussion link, I have had daily access to discussions about the Cal Band and its current activities, plans, controversies, and aspirations. While the input of alumni such as myself may only have limited and occasional value for the current Band, the discussion link makes it possible to understand the challenges facing the current Band and engage in sometimes lively discussions about these issues and our own experiences in the band. Although I rarely post notes myself, I am an avid reader of these weekly discussions. Over the past few years I have had friends go back to Cal for graduate school, and have also noticed the "OCF" in their e-mail addresses. I have used this e-mail service to learn about their experiences at Cal and to share my knowledge about the wonderful campus and my enthusiasm for the University. I would like to voice my strong support for the OCF, which has proved itself to be an extremely valuable resource to Cal students and alumni. As far as I'm concerned, the ability to keep in contact with other alums and current students is the best lifeline I could have to the University and the best alumni service the University could offer. Denying the OCF's extremely modest request to maintain space for its hardware would, in my opinion, be an extremely unfortunate and short-sighted action for the University to take. I urge the University to support this inexpensive, well-utilized, and much-appreciated resource. Sincerely, Toby Halliday PEIS/Sociology '86 _______________________________________________________________________________ From: kay gilbert Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 08:09:31 -0700 Subject: Late support plug For appeal to the Chancellor: UCLLNL, Interlibrary Loans employs and trains students at the Berkeley and Davis campuses. These students page in the UC Libraries. Over the past year, we have used the OCF server for our primary means of communications between campuses. The OCF server saves paper, time, phone charges, and gives the students an opportunity to build computer skills while working. Eliminating the OCF server would eliminate a very valuable and effective means of communication. Please consider relocation of the OCF center, but not elimination. Sincerely, Mrs. Kay Gilbert, UCLLNL, ILL Mr. Lawrence Johnson, UCB Page Mrs. Jans Wager, UCD Page Ms. Barbara Ingram, UCLLNL Circulation Supervisor Mrs. Betty Herrick, UCLLNL Circulation Group Leader Mr. Isom Harrision, UCLLNL Library Manager _______________________________________________________________________________ From: karen@Predator.Ocean.Dal.CA (Karen Fisher) Date: Thu, 18 May 95 12:46:39 ADT Subject: OCF shutdown? Hi I have just discovered that the OCF facility at Cal is in danger of being shut down. As a student organized effort to allow access to computing facilities to important campus groups like the Cal Band, this should not be allowed to happen. As a Cal alum who is now active in oceanographic research, I am extremely aware of the importance, and power, of being connected to the WWW. In fact, it was through discovering the Cal home page, and then the Band's, that I renewed my contacts with Cal from my current residence in Halifax Nova Scotia. As time goes on, funding for student groups continues to decrease, making their ability to contact the rest of the world more and more vital. Without that contact, thier ability to fund raise would be severely curtailed. The University should take steps to insure that the access currently provided by the OCF at Berkeley is not curtailed when the computing system is upgraded; as a matter of principle, it should continue to support the student initiative to organize the OCF, and encourage student involvement in the management of the new system as well. Sincerely, Karen Fisher karen@predator.ocean.dal.ca Dalhousie University Oceanography Dept Halifax, NS B3H 4J1 CANADA (902) 494-3655 _______________________________________________________________________________ From: colburn@cogniseis.com (Bob Colburn) Date: Thu, 18 May 95 12:26:04 CDT Subject: Keep OCF going! To Chancellor Tien and whoever else this may concern: I am extremely concerned about the future of the Open Computing Facility on the Berkeley campus. The OCF has over 11,000 staff, alumni, faculty, students, and organizations with accounts; to deprive the OCF of the modest amount of space it requires would SERIOUSLY limit access to those who need it most but can least afford it. Such a development would deny access to the so-called Information Superhighway that Cal faculty and students need in order to stay competitive as we enter the next century. The OCF also provides hands-on experience for a dedicated group of student volunteers that will help them in real world situations, and help make these future alumni maintain Cal's reputation of excellence. Shutting down the OCF in this high-tech age can only DAMAGE Cal's reputation as a university that stays on the leading edge of technology and respects student initiative. As an alumnus of the Cal Band, I greatly appreciate the Band's alumni email discussion group that is made possible by the OCF. It is a wonderful way to keep in touch with friends, the Band, and with the University, especially for those of us living in other parts of the country. I would be willing to make a financial contribution to keep OCF on-line, but I would have to re-consider my contribution to Cal's annual fund raising drive should OCF be unplugged. Once again, I ask that you see to it that the OCF be kept alive as it provides a wonderful service to the University. GO BEARS! Bob Colburn, 1982 Houston, Texas _______________________________________________________________________________ From: David Muir Sharnoff Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 00:22:23 -0700 Subject: not surprising, but distressing all the same. I helped found the OCF. I'm directly responsible for there being twenty workstations instead of one. I'm not terribly surprised that the OCF finds itself fighting for space: without continued blessings from above, any organization that allocates space may find itself fighting for survival. The OCF should not only be allowed to keep its space, it should be provided with the funds to upgrade its equipment. When the OCF lab opened six years ago, the computer systems it had were not state of the art. Six years just increases the contrast. The service that the OCF provides is very important to the Berkeley community. The number 12,000 proves it. Please lend them your ongoing support! I graduated from in the fall of '89 and since then I've done a number of things. One of the things I'm doing now is running a tiny Internet Service Provider (ISP). What the OCF does is very similar. I charge the least of any ISP that I know of and what I charge is $5/user/month. If the OCF, which does more than I do, were given a similar budget I would not consider it unreasonable. Actually, because the OCF does not have any labor costs $5/user/month is a bit generous. Typically ISPs spend something around 10% of their budget of equipement and so I would recommend that the OCF be provided with a $5/user/year budget which comes to $60,000/year with 12,000 users. David Muir Sharnoff, Idiom Consulting _______________________________________________________________________________ From: Committee on Student Fees Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 01:47:46 -0700 (PDT) Subject: OCF eviction Dear Chancellor Tien: I am deeply concerned about the possibility of the Open Computing Facility being removed from its current site without being provided a new location. If this action is taken, it will seriously undercut the Committee on Student Fees' ability to carry out our mission. We are a student-run organization sponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor (Carol Christ.) In the past year, we have been able to use our e-mail account in order to reach students that we have been unable to contact in the past. We have been able to answer their questions about fees and provide them with information. We are hoping to expand our ability to contact students and keep them informed about their fees by providing even more on-line services next year. Currently, our only access to the campus network, e-mail, and the Internet is through the Open Computing Facility. They are the only organization on campus that has been able and willing to provide an account to our group. If the OCF is closed down due to lack of an adequate site, our ability to contact students will be severely limited or cut out entirely. I would urge you to consider the needs of the Committee on Student Fees and ensure that we have the ability to carry out our mission ON-LINE. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Robert Pipkin Co-Chair, 1995-96 Committee on Student Fees If you have any questions, please direct them to me at csf@ocf.berkeley.edu or at 642-1639. _______________________________________________________________________________ From: Cliff Stoll Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 09:53:11 -0700 Subject: Best Selling Author Strongly Supports the OCF Over the past five years, I've been honored to be associated with the Open Computer Facility. I'm best known for catching a spy ring over the Internet and writing the best-selling book, "The Cuckoo's Egg". Most recently, the Open Computer Facility has been essential to writing my book, "Silicon Snake Oil." Indeed, much of the research for this book took place over the OCF computers, and OCF staff memebers have contributed to my research. The Open Computer Facility is one of the finest examples of student run organizations -- providing services, teaching, and a high-tech environment. But the OCF provides far more than computing and networks for students. It's a fertile ground to train and recruit support staff for other campus computing systems. Indeed, I notice many departments actively courting current and former OCF users, happy to capitalize on this University jewel. I strongly support the Open Computer Facility, and urge you to keep it strong. -Cliff Stoll _______________________________________________________________________________ From: Cal in Berkeley Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 10:27:57 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Don't get rid of OCF As a director of a student group, having an OCF email account has been a necessity when communicating with students as well as members of the city of Berkeley. OCF is, I think, the only server where student groups can get accounts for free. It provides an easy way to communicate with members of the student groups- and ensures that they get the message. In addition, we have just printed letterhead with our email account on it- so on a business level, it would be very bad for our student group to have the email server wiped out. OCF is an easy system to use. In the WEB with its computers just for using OCF, it is the most easily accessible email facility. I find the OCF a great service to students and would hate to see it wiped out. I hope another space on campus will be found to hold the OCF facility. Sincerely, Karin Cooke Director, Cal-in-Berkeley _______________________________________________________________________________ From: Gerard OUTRAM Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 13:10:57 +1000 (EST) Subject: ocf space problem As a student who spent 1994 at UCB on the EAP program I found that the ocf was a great service. In Australia we have nothing of the kind and students generally don't have regular access to electronic information with the hassles of departmental form filling etc. It would be a great loss to see this service provided by the OCF discontinued for any reason at all. I urge the university to find another location for these student run machines in the hope that a student run service may continue. Gerard Outram _______________________________________________________________________________ From: John Burk Date: Mon, 22 May 95 16:40:01 PDT Subject: Support for OCF I would like to voice my support of the OCF. As a student at Cal from 1985- 1987 I saw first hand the importance of student run organizations. I was a member of SMA-Jazz and the Cal Band. These were organizations that provided opportunities that the university would not provide at that time. The OCF helps many students, staff, faculty, taxpayers, and organizations. The services they provide act as a great public relations tool. Anybody from taxpayers to future students can learn about Cal from the OCF. To close the OCF would be a big public relations blunder and would adversely affect the university's ability to recruit quality students and contributors. As a teacher I know that if the OCF was closed I could no longer recommend Cal as heartily as I have and I would be less likely to contribute or reccommend to others to contribute to the university. sincerely, John Burk