Global Conference On Millennium Bug Opens At U.N. Headquarters

See also comments made by Ed Yordon on the thread titled Ed Yourdon. -- Diane

KEY ARTICLE SUMMARY:

Not all of the computer problems will be fixed on time and that nations must start planning to contain the damage. ... The scope ... is simply daunting. ... the focus of Friday's meeting was on contingency planning to contain the damage from the inevitable failures. ... the delegates closed the meeting to the news media. Kamal said barring reporters was aimed at encouraging frank discussion of countries' preparedness on the problem.

FULL-TEXT ARTICLE:

Global conference on millennium bug opens at U.N. headquarters CHRIS ALLBRITTON, AP Cyberspace Writer Friday, December 11, 1998

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1998/12/11/international1450EST0664.DTL

(12-11) 11:50 PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The first global conference on the so-called ``Year 2000 bug'' opened Friday with the acknowledgment that not all of the computer problems will be fixed on time and that nations must start planning to contain the damage.

Addressing delegates from more than 120 U.N. member-states, Under Secretary-General for Management Joseph E. Connor said it was impossible to predict the full effect of the problem, also known by its shorthand Y2K, on the world's computer systems -- and the global economy that depends on them.

``All we know for sure is the timing,'' he said of the Y2K bug. ``The scope ... is simply daunting.''

Also called the millennium bug, the Y2K problem is expected to occur because some programs, especially older ones, may fail when the year changes from 1999 to 2000. Because they were written to recognize only the last two digits of a year, such programs could read the digits ``00'' as 1900 instead of 2000.

Assessments of what might happen vary wildly, especially in developing countries. They tend to use much less sophisticated technology relying on software that cannot be updated. In the developed world, troubleshooters are daunted by the sheer number of computer systems needing to be checked and corrected.

Even though there are thousands of programmers around the world working on Y2K, many experts say there is not enough time to solve all of the problems. Connor said the focus of Friday's meeting was on contingency planning to contain the damage from the inevitable failures.

``We have to get used the fact that some factors will not be addressed,'' he said. But with proper planning ``we should be able to limit the millennium bug to an inconvenience rather than a major disaster.''

Conference organizers walked a fine line between grave warnings and cautious optimism.

``We all know we are in a race against time,'' said Ahmad Kamal, the Pakistan ambassador to the United Nations and chairman of the U.N. Economic and Social Council's Working Group on Informatics.

``Hopefully, we will reach some conclusions by the end of the day on how to proceed.''

Kamal is the United Nations' point-man for the Y2K problem, and organized the conference along with John A. Koskinen, chairman of the United States' presidential council on the Y2K bug.

After remarks by Connor the delegates closed the meeting to the news media. Kamal said barring reporters was aimed at encouraging frank discussion of countries' preparedness on the problem.

David P. Roundy, a commander in the U.S. Coast Guard who is helping direct the agency's Y2K efforts, said he was glad the world had finally decided to look at the problem.

``This really needed to happen,'' he said. ``Unfortunately, it really needed to happen a year ago.''

There are 386 days remaining until Jan. 1, 2000. Global estimates for fixing the problem run as high as $600 billion, according to the Gartner Group, a technology research firm, not including potential lawsuits.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 11, 1998

Answers

Completely overshadowed today by that bozo with fly-trouble in DC.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), December 11, 1998.

Front Page, Web-site -- New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/

TECHNOLOGY World Millennium Bug Summit Opens

The first global conference on the so-called "Year 2000 bug" opened with the acknowledgment that not all of the computer problems will be fixed on time and that nations must start planning to contain the damage...

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/12/biztech/articles/12year.html

December 12, 1998

World Millennium Bug Summit Opens

By BARNABY FEDER

UNITED NATIONS -- Responding cautiously to warnings about the potential for widespread computer disasters in 2000, the first global convention of government representatives to deal with the so-called millennium bug ended Friday with an informal endorsement of regional cooperation.

The concluding summary, issued by Ahmad Kamal of Pakistan, the head of the U.N. task force on information technology, also recommended that an organization be developed to coordinate information-sharing and contingency plans.

The meeting attracted delegates from more than 120 countries, including some that had not set up national projects to deal with the problem until the invitations went out. Some last-minute attendees, notably France, have expressed skepticism about the extent of the threat.

The problem arises because many computers, software programs and electronically controlled machines use two digits to record the year, like 98 for 1998. Some read 00 as 1900 instead of 2000; others cannot interpret 00 as a valid date. Computers could miscalculate or crash as a result.

Delegates and observers said the meeting, most of it closed to reporters, was unusually unvarnished for such a diplomatic setting.

Ronald Ball, a British Telecom official representing the International Telecommunications Union, a U.N. agency, bluntly named countries that had failed to respond to requests for information about how their telephone operations are being updated. Some who were present said Ball cited not only developing countries but also wealthy nations like Italy and, despite Kamal's prominent role, Pakistan.

Other speakers warned that Global 2000, a group of banks working on the problem, would begin publicizing its rankings of different countries' preparedness in February, which could cause investors to avoid countries that are lagging.

Both the bluntness and the networking opportunities for international technocrats delighted the U.S. delegation, which was led by John Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, and included senior congressional leaders. "We have two years' worth of work to do in a year's time," Koskinen said.

Acknowledging that some failures are inevitable, the group spent much of the day discussing how nations can develop contingency plans. One suggestion was to set up "SWAT teams" that could move swiftly into the hardest hit areas with technical assistance.

The common assumption is that most of the world is far behind the United States in preparing for 2000. The Gartner Group, a consulting firm based in Stamford, Conn., reported that at the end of September, the only nations joining the United States in the "lowest risk" category were Australia, Belgium, Bermuda, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Israel, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden.

Gartner projects that 15 percent of businesses and government agencies in low-risk countries will suffer at least one computer failure that significantly disrupts operations.

By contrast, more than 30 countries, including Russia and China, fall into the highest-risk category. Gartner projects that two-thirds or more of all businesses and government agencies in those countries will run into at least one major problem.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 12, 1998.

GET A CLUE! YOU ARE DRIVING GOOD PPL OFF THIS FORUM! STOP ALL THE HUGE POSTINGS! INCONSIDERATE IDIOT!

-- Lurker (no@thanks.com), December 12, 1998.

To: "Lurker", whoever you are

The above postings by Diane J. Squire are quite relevant to Y2K.

- - -

To: Diane J. Squire

Quoting entire articles like that is a violation of the AP copyright on them. It is illegal.

Please instead post hot links like Global conference on millennium bug opens at U.N. headquarters and then quote only small portions, if any, in accordance with copyright law.

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), December 12, 1998.

No Spam Please,

There is a copyright law entitled "Fair Use." If the articles, specifically within the newsmedia would remain at that link, then it would be no problem. Instead, after a short time they are recategorized and seemingly "disappear."

Can you offer a workable solution around this problem? Think in terms of the archival nature of the forum threads.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 12, 1998.

United Nations Web-site http://www.un.org/

There is a large amount of data relating to the above mentioned UN meeting at http://www.un.org/members/yr2000/meeting/

(It has the look that the information here is somewhat permanent, so you are invited to explore -- i.e. its not a temporal link as in newsmedia web-site articles).

The United Nations National Y2K Coordinators Meeting December 11, 1998 Meeting The Global Challenge

The UN Website Search page is located at http://www.un.org/search/

There are numerous press releases and other related documents, pertaining to Y2K or year 2000 or millennium, to be perused here.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 12, 1998.

If people don't like the long posts they can skip over them. Just like if people don't like Howard Stern, change the station. Name calling is uncalled for. I appreciate the articles.

-- Diane (DDEsq2002@juno.com), December 12, 1998.

Diane, thank you for posting the articles. I myself prefer not having to click on hotlinks for the story at hand. I prefer reading it immediately on the forum, and if I decide I don't want to read it, I simply scroll down or click on the back button.

I'm worth as much as Lurker, and I thought you'd like to know that.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), December 12, 1998.

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9812/12/y2k.un/index.html

htt p://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9812/12/y2k.un/index.html

120-plus Countries Ponder Global Effects Of Y2K

December 12, 1998, Web posted at: 8:50 p.m. EST (0150 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Global cash shortages, shipping delays, flight disruptions and power breakdowns.

Those are some of the possible disruptions from the millennium computer bug that were addressed by more than 120 member states at the United Nations on Friday.

For the first time, the world body hosted a meeting of national coordinators in the hope that personal contacts will lead to regional plans to forestall some of the nightmare scenarios feared by the public.

The delegates agreed to press their governments to assign the "highest priority" to the problem and suggested tapping a World Bank trust fund to help poor countries pay for bringing their computer systems into compliance, according to a statement from conference chairman Ahmad Kamal.

Kamal, Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations, said more than 110 delegates at the brainstorming seminar were from developing countries whose computers could be particularly affected.

......

***********
"Perceptions are going to govern our reaction to this," Kamal told reporters during a break in the closed-door session.
***********

"It appears that electricity and power, whether nuclear or hydroelectric, is a critically important sector," he said.
Banking and finance are also key because of the linkages between money transfer systems and telecommunications.

The U.S. representative at the conference, John Koskinen, told journalists that while much work had already been done in those two sectors, much less progress had been made in others such as shipping. He pointed out that 95 percent of all goods enter the United States via maritime shipping. "That's escaped attention while people focused on the other critical areas," he said.

Some shippers have already announced that they may stay at sea on January 1, 2000, rather than risk getting stuck at ports hit by the computer bug.

And airlines could refuse to fly to countries that cannot demonstrate that their air traffic control network can cope after the millennium. Officials are "beginning to move more aggressively" in aviation, Koskinen said.
**************

[ Yeah, bet he's startin to sweat the flyin thing, after promising to do it, wing-in-tongue ]

Kamal said the meeting discussed so-called "SWAT teams" that would follow up problems after the January 1, 2000, deadline, and include international crisis teams who would visit countries in need of technical support.

He said cross-border regional contingency planning was needed in each sector, such as electrical power grids, which "don't stop at the political border."

.....

"The U.N. was forged to bring order to a world wracked by technological disaster -- Hiroshima and Nagasaki," said Jonathan Spalter, associate director of information for the United States Information Agency. "Now, it's trying to do it again."

[ That "Perceptions are going to govern our reaction to this"
statement reveals everything. Diane, you have the right idea: we the people must quickly, loudly, in concert trumpet our 'perception' that the problem be immediately acknowledged and dealt with openly, by active personal and community preparation NOW, #1 PRIORITY. ]

xxxxxxx xxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 12, 1998.

Chris, do you ever post anything here of intelligence?

I agree, quit the long, space wasting posts. It takes time to scoll through all that garbage and costs a lot of money for some people, one reason the good people are leaving.

-- observer (observer@observer.com), December 13, 1998.

Soon this place will will be just 2or3 ppl rubbing each other's backs. PNG, Dave 22, lots of others gone now too. STOP POSTING LONGWINDED NONSENSE! A URL OR HOTLINK IS ENOUGH!!

-- 1000 times YES (notthis@time.now), December 13, 1998.

Chris, Leska & Diane, thank you. At least you are all willing to come forward rather than lurk in the shadows.

Please refer to the posting part of the discussion on the thread: "Did you hear about the huge power outage in SF today?"

Robert forgive me if I lift your quote but...

My vote? Not that anybody asked. If there's relevant info in the whole thing - and most of the time it is the small "oh by the way" or off-the wall comment as background that gives me most of the insights _hidden behind_ their words - then add the article. Takes 15-30 seconds to read, everything is in one place.

takes longer than that to call the other article, if still present, as you indicated. Bottom line. Give the poster the respect to decide what's important. But - if it irritates you - let 'em know, but have the judgement to make your recommendation effective by not flaming the person you are trying to convince.

Thought that was a common complaint about Milne.

Answered by Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com) on December 10, 1998.

To: Lurker, observer and 1000 times YES -- So, I exercise my choice to post long, if I feel the post is appropriate, and if I feel it will be LOST IN CYBERSPACE. Just scroll, trolls. BTW, PNG also mentioned the enormous online costs he incurred. Given the Japanese economic situation at the moment, that may also have something to do with his choice.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 13, 1998.

Thank you, Diane, Leska and anyone else who saves me mouse-clicks and waiting time by posting complete articles here. I can't imagine any serious thoughtful reader would leave because they don't know how to scroll and are thus condemned to read each article and every post in full.

What really annoys me is whining. Now, having whined about that, I'll leave you with this.

"Never argue with a fool, people may not be able to tell the difference."

Hallyx

-- Hallyx (Hallyx@aol.com), December 13, 1998.

Diane, "scroll trolls" I like that :-D

Observer, at least I'm not ashamed of my level of inteligence by hiding anonymously.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), December 13, 1998.

Gang: FWIW, not one line of copy in the local Sunday paper about the UN summit. Also, no related articles so far (12/11) on DeJagers Press Clippings (which is the latest available at the time of this post. I know there is a lot of other very important stuff happening, but no mention of the global conference at all? And what is Gary up too... his last post is dated 12/10 and I don't remember seeing the usual 'won't be posting until' message. Did I miss something?

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), December 13, 1998.

United Nations Y2K News Article Search Engine

-- Alpha Beta (jkl@alpha.bet), December 13, 1998.

Thanks Alpha Beta. A quick view by date at the above site found many articles on Friday, less yesterday, and only two dated today. Here are summaries:

(CNN Interactive) Summary: Global cash shortages, shipping delays, flight disruptions and power breakdowns. Those are some of the possible disruptions from the millennium computer bug that were addressed by more than 120 member states at the United Nations on Friday. He pointed out that 95 percent of all goods enter the United States via maritime shipping. First found: 13 Dec 1998

(Star-Telegram) Summary: The ideas included setting up national and international "SWAT teams" to handle crises caused by the computer glitch. "We all know that we are competing in a race against time," said Pakistani ambassador Ahmad Kamal, who hosted the conference. First found: 13 Dec 1998

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), December 13, 1998.

Here's a great quote from one of the U.N. stories:

"Some last-minute attendees, notably France, have expressed skepticism about the extent of the threat."

http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=121298&ID=s498513&cat=

French toast.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), December 13, 1998.

How about EuroToast? Three other excerpts from the same article:

"...the first global convention of government representatives to deal with the so-called millennium bug ended Friday with an informal endorsement of regional cooperation."

What a bunch of too late too little crap. 381 days to go at the time and this was 'the first'. And what else but crap can this 'informal endoresment' be. Next excerpt:

"The concluding summary, issued by Ahmad Kamal of Pakistan, the head of the U.N. task force on information technology, also recommended that an organization be developed to coordinate information-sharing and contingency plans."

More crap. Another committee. Next excerpt:

"Other speakers warned that Global 2000, a group of banks working on the problem, would begin publicizing its rankings of different countries' preparedness in February, which could cause investors to avoid countries that are lagging."

Add these rankings to the list of things we should watch for after all of the January companies that have announced they made the 12/31 deadline and have a year to test. Yeah, right.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), December 13, 1998.

If you scroll up a ways you'll see good excerpts posted yesterday :)

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 13, 1998.

Leska: I was unrealistically hoping to see something besides the equivalent of what we got from the G8 communique in late summer. At this point, I think that I'll just wait to see what Ed comes back with.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), December 13, 1998.

I, too, eagerly await Ed's report to all of us.

The UN outright admitted that "perceptions" are driving policies and actions. See above, about 1/2 up scroll bar. Astounding. Nobody will lead or stick their neck out -- only their noses into polls and murky evasive muck.

The exciting part seems to be, it's up to US.
BTW, where's Leo?

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 13, 1998.

To impeach, or not to impeach. That is not the question.

The UN does appear completely overshadowed in the media. How many different ways are there to burn toast? How soon will we all find out?

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 13, 1998.

More bad news:
http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?INW19981214S0061

http: //www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?INW19981214S0061

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 13, 1998.