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Table of Contents

Locations
Characteristics
Log-In Procedure
Applications
Personal File Space
Internet Access

The Information Commons is a service that provides students and staff access to all the information technology resources necessary for teaching and learning. It involves around 1, 000 computer terminals on campus. Three operating systems are available: Windows, Macintosh, and Unix. Any member of the campus community can login at any computer.

These computers are made available in a range of locations :

  • Open access areas (typically associated with library buildings or halls of residence).

  • Bookable rooms (computing laboratories). These rooms are typically booked by teaching staff whose students need to use a computer during class. They can be booked as part of a regular timetable for a computer-based course or as a one-off booking for a special presentation or project. When not booked, these laboratories are in open access mode. One generally needs to use a student card or access card to enter these computer laboratories.

  • Lecture theatres. Many of the lecture theatres have at least one Information Commons machine on the podium with a projector to display the screen to students in the conventional lecture setting.

All Information Commons locations and computers are identified by the Information Commons sign:

Any computer identified as part of the Information Commons will have the following characteristics:

  • Identical log-in procedure

  • Access to a set of applications including a web browser, word processor, and some course-specific software.

  • Access to your personal file space on a central file server, known as “Pebble”, where you can save personal files.

All the Windows and Macintosh machines in the Information Commons already have these characteristics. The Unix machines are moving in that direction.

All members of the University have access to the Information Commons. A user name and password are required. The user name is your Uni Id number preceded by “u” (e.g. u3012345). The password is the same password used in ISIS or HORUS. This log-in should be identical on any machine in the Information Commons.

More information about passwords, forgotten passwords and Uni IDs is available online.

All Information Commons machines provide the user with some core computing applications. Generally all computers will provide a web browser, some office applications, and (access to) some teaching and learning applications. What teaching applications actually run on each machine would depend on the machine’s location and operating system. For example, some teaching software is only available in Windows and not Macintosh, or visa versa. Licensing restrictions can also mean that some specialised course-specific software is only available in certain locations. Other machines (in a library foyer, for example) may be only designed to provide minimum functionality like a web browser for consulting the library on-line catalogue. More information on the exact set-up of each location in the Information Commons is available on-line.

Teaching staff can have software installed on the Information Commons machines for teaching purposes. Feedback from students is also welcome through the helpdesk system.

All machines of the Information Commons give users access to a personal file space. The files are stored on a central file server called “Pebble”. Nothing is saved on the individual machines, but rather every time you log on to any Information Commons machine, a network connection is established which gives you the ability to save and retrieve files to and from your personal folder on Pebble.

On an Information Commons machine, the My Documents folder in the Windows environment is actually a link to your Pebble file space. The equivalent folder in the Macintosh environment is called Users.

This is a secure and stable place to store files, and a convenient way to access your work from any computer on the Information Commons. Your can also access Pebble from off campus.

Staff members can arrange through their local IT support staff to have a permanent link mapped to Pebble from a staff machine. That way you can work on material in your office, save it to Pebble, and open it on any computer in the computer labs and lecture theatres. Be aware, however, that the staff environment is likely to be slightly different from the Information Commons environment, and it is therefore always wise to test it once in the classroom, before class.

By default every member of the campus can store a certain amount of data on Pebble. Space is allocated on a quota system. For teaching purposes staff members can arrange to have a larger quota for themselves and/or for students enrolled in their course.

Each of the nearly 1,000 computers in the Information Commons has a data network connection. This allows you

  • to access any of the ANU on-line resources

  • to access the world-wide web resources in general, and

  • to use networked services such as email.

You have unlimited access to any of the on-line resources on the ANU intranet, but there are some restrictions as to the amount of data you can access from the internet.
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