The Common Room, which officially opens tonight, not only houses a community learning centre for computing students, but will also offer a range of public facilities, including a cafe, internet access, and a video-conferencing room.
The polytechnic bought an existing internet cafe business on the corner of George and Bath Sts and relocated its Princes St student learning centre there, centre team leader Joy Atkinson said yesterday.
The first students moved in on Monday.
The upgraded cafe is expected to open next week, while over the next few months the mezzanine level of the building will be transformed into a second computer suite/seminar room and a board room with video-conferencing facilities.
The video-conferencing facility will be one of the few such spaces available for hire in Dunedin, and Mrs Atkinson said she expected strong interest from local businesses.
"They can use it when they have a meeting in Wellington or a conference to attend and don't want to travel there because of time or cost."
She is also investigating whether the centre might host a wireless local area network, which allows computer users within range to connect to the internet.
The video-conference facility would be useful for Dunedin businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones which could not justify facilities of their own, Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie said last night when contacted.
"It gets rid of that tyranny of distance . . . and makes the rest of the world more accessible, and anything which does that must be useful."
Video-conferencing, which some government departments and larger organisations and businesses already had between their own offices, could also be used for interviewing job applicants and staff training, as well as meetings and conferences, he said.
"As the technology develops, there are more and more creative ways of using it."
