This quote, in Information Week, is from Robin Guenier, who Flint calls the "Gary North of the UK". Hey Flint, does this mean Information Week will soon be quoting Gary North?

Subject:	Bye Bye Britannia
Date:	1999/07/23
Author:	Paul Milne <fedinfo@halifax.com>
	Posting History

July 19, 1999, Issue: 744 Section: Trends ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Closing Time -- Have U.K. Businesses Done Enough To Ready Their Systems For The Year 2000? Scott McKenzie, InformationWeek U.K.   "I'm less optimistic now than this time last year," says Robin Guenier, executive director of Taskforce 2000, a nonprofit organization that tracks Y2K progress in the United Kingdom. "With six months to go, I'm really disappointed with the U.K.'s readiness."   A Taskforce 2000 Y2K readiness survey conducted in May with research company Business Intelligence and a U.K. law firm revealed that 30% of large U.K. companies are unlikely to finish their Y2K preparations on time. The survey focused on the country's 1,000 largest companies because, Guenier says, they provide a reliable indication of the general readiness of businesses. "If the large companies aren't up to scratch, what does that mean for the rest of the economy?" he says.   ===========     http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?IWK19990719S0037 Paul Milne "If you live within 5 miles of a 7-11, you're toast"

-- a (a@a.a), July 24, 1999

Answers

Companies everywhere are between a rock & a hard place.They can spend millions on internal remediation & contingency planning but the domino effect can get them anyway...sooner or later.

Thats why I am a 9

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), July 24, 1999.

I've said repeatedly that I don't expect *anyone* to be fully compliant. Asking what this might mean is why we're here, right?

As for this survey, without seeing the survey itself (NOT the results, the survey) I can't comment on it. Guenier, face it, has never found anything good to say about anyone or anything with respect to y2k. He sees his job as raising the alarm. Creating a survey to exaggerate problems rather than describe reality is trivially easy. Describing reality is a major challenge.

Anyway, Guenier's question is rhetorical. It's just a way of saying we're in big trouble without actually saying that. Plausible deniability, just in case he's wrong. "Gee, I didn't *say* we'd have troubles, I only posed the question."

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), July 24, 1999.

The way I hear it, Guenier was initially in charge of the British government's Y2K awareness project, Action 2000; he refused to spin the info collected, so the government dumped him and hired someone who would. Comparing Guenier to North is like comparing Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry to Night Train fortified wine.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), July 25, 1999.

Old Git:

In this context, everything is 'spin'. The issue is what's best -- emphasizing the positive (reduces likelihood of unhelpful public behavior), emphasizing the negative (points the focus on what needs to be done), or describing the reality (doesn't serve the *purpose* of either organization)?

Selecting the 'best' focus is not something obvious or trivial. The goal might be "fewest problems for the fewest number" or some such, but reducing such a goal to practice requires many assumptions, which can't be avoided. Having two bodies making different sets of assumptions is probably a Good Thing, in that it sets up a tension that can only be resolved by addressing y2k seriously. But these assumption sets must be recognized for what they are -- deliberate spin in *both* cases.

You need to think carefully before saying "My assumptions are *right*, therefore yours are spin.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), July 25, 1999.

Flint:

I don't know what your post has to do with my post. I explained who Guenier is and opined that he's not the UK Gary North. If you want to lecture someone on the minutiae of spin theory, apply for a college post.

Nowhere in that post did I say, "My assumptions are *right*, therefore yours are spin." I take back what I said about applying for a college post. Try cartooning instead--you can put all the words in people's mouths you want in that job.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), July 25, 1999.

Old Git:

You said Guenier was replaced because he "refused to spin" his information. This is incorrect. He was replaced because the spin he chose was considered inappropriate, and he was replaced by someone who applies a very different spin. Guenier has always spun his material hard, both when he worked for the government and after he was forced to go private.

I concluded by your observation that he "refused to spin" that you agreed with the spin he chose, and therefore couldn't see it, or choose not to see it. So I pointed out that Guenier considers his spin best, and Flowers considers *her* spin best. I don't know whose assumptions really are 'best' (whatever that means) in the long run, but *both* are spinning like mad. And always have been.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), July 25, 1999.

Back on topic. Robin Guenier's bio:

http://www.speakers.co.uk/5179.htm

Robin Guenier

Executive Director, Taskforce 2000

Robin Guenier is an expert on the impact of computing technology on society during the transition to the twenty-first century. In particular, he is concerned with the century date-change computer crisis - the so-called Millennium Bug.

For twenty years he was general manager/chief executive of various high-tech businesses until early 1995, when he founded his business consultancy, Guenier Ltd. He became concerned about the date-change issue in 1996 during an assignment as Chief Executive of the British Governments Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (the CCTA). After meetings in Washington, DC, he briefed the Deputy Prime Minister and senior Government officials about the issue and, in July 1996 at the end of his CCTA contract, was asked by the Minister for Science and Technology to set up Taskforce 2000 - a non-profit business with the objective to communicate the understanding of the problem.

Taskforce 2000 is internationally credited with putting Britain at the forefront of nations tackling the problem. It was Government funded until October 1997 when that funding was terminated after Guenier had publicly criticised the Government for dragging its feet on the issue. It is now fully independent - funded by donations from private industry - and has become a key focus for date-change expertise and opinion.

Robin Guenier has made hundreds of speeches, in Britain and overseas, and has written many articles on the subject. He has held discussions at board level throughout the UK and with senior politicians of all major parties. He is a regular contributor to TV and radio programmes and writes a weekly column for Computer Weekly. In 1998, he was voted by its readers "IT Personality of the Year".

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), July 25, 1999.