World Y2k group to continue Y2k watch, Gambia included

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(Why is Gambia among the list of countries still monitoring Y2k? Their government vehemently denied having Y2k problems after the rollover, remember?)

Computers and Science

World Y2K group to continue work WASHINGTON (March 3) : 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 Bill Clinton's top Y2K advisor said on 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 Centre. 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 co-ordinators found their network "an extremely effective communications channel" that helped them get work done "without having to go through the normal diplomatic organisation that take a lot of time going up and over and down and back."

Bruce McConnell, director of the International Y2K Cooperation Centre, said discussions were under way with the United Nations, World Bank and national Y2K co-ordinators about "using the international network of government technology officials created under this programme to solve other international technology problems."

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

The centre reported no significant computer problems during the leap day rollover Tuesday despite fears that some computers would not recognise 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 UN auspices.

Koskinen, whose $50 million Y2K-tracking operation wrapped up its operations on Wednesday, said the US 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.--Reuters

2000

Source: The Business Recorder, Pakistan's National Financial Daily

http://www.brecorder.com/story/S00DD/SDC03/SDC03133.htm

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), March 19, 2000


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