Discuss Year 2000 Issues Message Board

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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues

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To: Christine Traut who wrote (5043)	3/27/1999 8:22:00 PM
From: Christine Traut	Read Replies (2) of 9818

A few more thoughts on attending that big deal computer conference. This is a yearly event. It attracts the big thinkers and strategists. If ever there was a place to talk about the Y2K issue from an overall industry viewpoint - this was it. Not even on the agenda. What was interesting, though, was that two of the 'special guests' mentioned it. One was Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, addressing the group at dinner. She was listing issues that are on the minds of her readers - Y2K was first. Then there was Mary Lou Quinlan of the McManus group. She does market research with women. She showed a tape of one of her focus groups and there was a woman who looked very worried, saying that Moms ultimately had to do everything around the house and it was Moms who were going to have to deal with Y2K. People laughed. A lot of people. I am still amazed, not to mention disappointed, that the leaders of high tech companies do not seem to feel any responsibility for what is an industry wide quality control problem. Even if Y2K did nothing more than scare people - and I think it will do considerable harm - the industry ought to be reaching out and taking responsibility. Instead, we've got Microsoft misleading people into thinking that "Y2K Compliant" means that their software is fine just as it is when it is going to require patches and updates. And many of the technology elite laughing at Moms and Y2K. We don't do it very often, but part of the purpose of this board is to discuss Y2K's impact on the stock market. I am beginning to believe that there could be a tremendous public relations and trust issue with technology companies. Long before 01/01/00. I've always realized that geeks are not the most emotionally intelligent people in the world. But messing up, being uninterested in cleaning up the mess, failing to take responsibility and then laughing at people because they are frightened - not a good recipe for keeping up the value of a brand.

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