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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Mansfield who wrote (2669)	10/7/1998 6:39:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 9818

'Debugging the fast-ticking technological time bomb At a Labour party conference fringe meeting last week, Margaret Beckett said that "late and somewhat reluctantly" she had concluded that the 2000 computer problem - the so-called "millennium bug" - could not be entirely resolved and that the focus must now be on prioritisation and contingency planning. Precisely the advice she was given in May 1997. But that was 16 months ago - and there are now less than 15 months to the millennium. At the end of the 20th century we have allowed computers to lock our world into a complex network of interdependencies. A network that no one fully understands. Any failure could be disastrous. The workings of the financial world are utterly dependent on computers - to an extent inconceivable 20 years ago. If those systems are unable to handle the transition to 2000 the present world economic crisis will worsen incalculably. Some failure is now inevitable. The only uncertainty is its extent: it could damage the well-being of millions of people - their jobs, their welfare, their future. Mrs Beckett, the minister charged with fighting the "bug", is right: we have neither the time nor the resources to do it all. It need not have been so bad. Surveys conducted early last year indicated that more than 90 per cent of senior people in the UK's private and public sectors had heard of the problem - although few understood it. That was probably higher than in any other country. It was a basis from which we could have built an outcome that would have been hugely beneficial to Britain and, by example, to the world. But it was squandered. Throughout the summer of last year, despite urgent pleas to ministers, the issue was largely ignored by the Government. And, when it eventually took action, it got it wrong. It is still getting it wrong. In September 1997 the Government announced the formation of its campaigning body, Action 2000. But virtually nothing came of it for five months - ten months after the general election. Then it made the mistake of focusing on smaller companies, assuming that larger businesses had matters under control. And it trivialised the problem by adopting the "millennium bug" label, complete with silly cartoon. Not surprisingly, many people haven't taken the issue seriously. The Government's programmes have continued to slip - prompting severe criticism by the National Audit Office, the Audit Commission and the Public Accounts Committee. In March Tony Blair made what should have been a key speech. He spelt out the problem eloquently: "If we don't tackle this problem, the economy will slow . . . We must turn awareness into action and we must do it now . . . This is a unique problem . . . We will train 20,000 bug busters . . . We propose that the G8 set up a council of experts . . . We are working with our international partners . . . Normal processes will not meet it. But by treating this as an emergency, we can make Britain one of the world's best prepared countries." Six months later all this is in disarray. The £10 million "millennium bug" campaign has failed to wake up smaller business. Few have signed on for the £26 million (and nonsensical) "bug buster" army. The first meeting of the G8 experts was pathetic. Jan Timmer, the former Philips chief and head of the Dutch year 2000 initiative, criticised Britain for failing to give a lead during its EU presidency. To have allowed this to happen is careless. To continue on the same track would be unforgivable. A fresh start is needed: as the Prime Minister said in March, we have to treat this as an emergency. But this time he must mean it. It means the appointment of a Cabinet minister with sole and full-time responsibility for getting us out of this mess. That minister's immediate task must be: To ensure that senior people in the public and private sectors take personal responsibility for the issue, putting it at the top of their agendas - despite the multitude of other current difficulties. It is far too important to leave it to computer people. To stop the slippage of government programmes. And if that means extra resources, then so be it. To shake up the Action 2000 organisation, cutting out bureaucracy and abandoning the "millennium bug" and "bug buster" foolishness - establishing this as an issue of the utmost seriousness and targeting large as well as smaller businesses. To ensure that the UK's real millennium experts (there are many - although few, if any, in Action 2000) are brought fully into the national programme. To demand transparency and public accountability from the utilities - chief executives should be asked to state publicly the readiness or otherwise of their services. Only that way can the rest of the economy make sensible contingency plans. To publish the Government's contingency and damage limitation proposals as they are developed, thus encouraging comment from the private sector which should be persuaded to be equally open. To foster a widespread public debate on the issue - thereby engaging the efforts and imagination of ordinary people in anticipating and tackling the inevitable problems. Initiate a significant global programme - first, to establish any dangers or weaknesses in the global infrastructure and then to take whatever remedial action is practicable. This will he hugely expensive but is vitally important. This extraordinary threat to our society will be overcome only if the Government provides a clearer voice and stronger leadership - and, above all, a vastly greater sense of urgency. This time it must not falter. Robin Guenier is director of Taskforce 2000, an independent millennium campaign group, sunday-times.co.uk