Mr Yourdon, Do you have any information on europe (France in peticular) readyness? Ive been following european raports for months and they seem a bit "vague". Europe is notorious for misleading people and this situation is critical. If you belive what they say officialy they say there 100% ready!!!! unofficialy there doomed. Any informayion would be greatly appreciated, Thanks, Eric

-- eric schatz (voynik@aol.com), August 11, 1999

Answers

Eric,

Various groups in the U.S., such as the Gartner Group and the CIA, have been trying to assess the level of readiness on a country-by-country basis. There are also periodic reports from the U.N., the World Bank, etc. But as you point out, they're all pretty "vague" -- and we Americans have just assumed that it's because we don't know who to ask, or what kind of questions to ask.

The informal reports and stories that I've read about France indicate that many of the key decision-makers still think that Y2K is an Anglo- Saxon "invention" and that it could possibly affect things built by French engineers, who are by far the smartest and best-educated people in the world. That's the semi-official attitude, apparently; but a number of Y2K observers in England, other parts of Europe, and the U.S. have a somewhat more pessimistic assessment of the situation.

Meanwhile, though, you have to remember that we don't even have a precise understanding of the level of Y2K readiness in the U.S. It has become a media battle, whose primary concern seems to be maintaining public confidence ... and the media reports are written by people who wouldn't recognize a computer if they fell over one.

The whole point of the "Humpty Dumpty" book is that it's unproductive, and far too late, to continue on with these arguments. We only have 142 days left before 1/1/2000; we're in the "end game", and whatever will happen will happen. If Y2K does indeed turn out to be nothing more than a "bump in the road" then we'll all live happily ever after; but if it turns out to be a more serious problem, then we'll need to decide how to re-build, re-invent, and re-formulate the various components of society that have been damaged by Y2K. Better we should start thinking about that now, rather than in February 2000.

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (HumptyDumptyY2K@yourdon.com), August 11, 1999.

I live in Italy now and I can tell you that they are not only NOT ready, they are completely unaware. I am affiliated with the military community here and I only recently got THEM moving. Most believe that it will be nothing or that the military will take care of them. The italians are great at "workarounds" and so they will probably figure out something....

We have y2k here all the time as NOTHING works. We lose power on the average of 3-4 times per month from a few minutes to a few hours. We can't communicate well, nobody knows what anybody is doing...if anything. I feel that I have a preview....and that the Italians may well not notice any difference at all.....sigh...such is life overseas...

-- Ynott (Ynott@incorruptible.com), September 26, 1999.