World Y2K group to continue

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World Y2K group to continue WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Technology officials from about a dozen countries, including the United States and Japan, plan to keep alive an informal network used to monitor work on the Year 2000 computer challenge, President Clinton's top Y2K advisor said Wednesday.

The new group, which would focus on information technology issues, would grow from the steering committee of the World Bank-financed International Y2K Cooperation Center. Other members of the steering committee are Britain, Bulgaria, Chile, Gambia, Iceland, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands and South Korea.

``Information security is one issue'' the new group will address, said John Koskinen, a Clinton assistant who heads the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion.

He said national Y2K coordinators found their network ``an extremely effective communications channel'' that helped them get work done ``without having to go through the normal diplomatic organization that take a lot of time going up and over and down and back.''

Bruce McConnell, director of the International Y2K Cooperation Center, said discussions were under way with the United Nations, World Bank and national Y2K coordinators about ''using the international network of government technology officials created under this program to solve other international technology problems.''

The International Center, a clearinghouse for Y2K-related information, has closed its small Washington headquarters but will function online until the end of March.

The center reported no significant computer problems during the leap day rollover Tuesday despite fears that some computers would not recognize Feb. 29 and malfunction.

``Today marks the successful end of our work,'' McConnell said in a statement. The International Y2K group was created a year ago under U.N. auspices.

Koskinen, whose $50 million Y2K-tracking operation wrapped up its operations Wednesday, said the U.S. point of contact for the planned technology network would be the deputy director for management in the White House Office of Management and Budget, a job he once held.

For the second day, he reported a handful of minor leap day glitches in the United States, including one that disrupted a National Oceanic and Aeronautics Administration satellite processing system in the Pacific.

``We've received no reports of any major problems in the United States or actually anywhere in the world for that matter resulting from programs not being able to properly recognize'' Feb. 29, Koskinen said.

http://www.sjmercury.com/breaking/docs/040146.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 02, 2000


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