This is the dawn of a new age.
The new millennium of man has begun.
This is the age of science, the age of technology, the age of the computer, and the microchip
processor.
Around the world, computers and microchips are responsible for operating and monitoring
big business, communications, transportation, and countless other areas of man's life.
But on the dawn of his new age, January 1st of the year 2000, will man awaken to the sounds
of science or the sounds of silence?
The millennium bug.
Much has been written and discussed lately about this so-called year 2000 computer bug.
The government, financial institutions, and big business are spending millions of dollars
on this computer glitch called the Y2K or year 2000 problem.
What is it, and why all the fuss?
The millennium bug, or the year 2000 problem, as you hear about today, stems from early
programs that were written for very weak computers based on what we have today.
In the 50s, when computers were first starting to be used, we had very little space in them
to store data, and as a result we looked for shortcuts.
The old 80-column punch card, for example, had 80 spots to store data.
Well, if you had, say, September 1st, 1952, you could do it as 9-1-1952, or you could
do it as 9-1-52 and save two spots.
Well, those two spots were very valuable when you had a very expensive, slow, and small
computer, and so programmers began to write 9-1-52, 9-1-62, and so forth.
We knew way back then that this would cause a problem in the year 2000, but to be honest,
everyone figured, well, that's 40, 50 years out.
I'll be retired.
I won't have to worry about this, and these systems will all be replaced.
Unfortunately, people get into bad habits sometimes.
I believe we've gotten into a bad habit, and for expediency, we just haven't made the
change as we should have.
And now, of course, the year 2000 is almost here, and these systems are going to run into
a problem.
The problem that we have when the year 2000 hits, when we hit December 31st, 1999, 1159
PM, here it goes, the problem will be that the computer will revert to 11 slash 00.
It won't know that it's the year 2000.
It will think it's the year 1900.
Well, stop and think what happens.
If I was born in 1960, let's say, I would subtract, to find my birth date and age, I
would subtract 1960 from, say, 1999.
Well, I'm 39 years old.
49, I guess.
49 years old.
No problem.
But what happens if I subtract it from 00?
60 from 0 gives me a minus 60.
The computer doesn't know what to do with that.
Well, you're minus 60 years old, so it's an error.
And depending on how the software is written, the program will stop.
The computer will cease execution, and everything stops.
That's the year 2K problem.
If you're like me, the only computer you ever see is the personal computer you bought for
Christmas hoping the kids would use it for their homework.
But now the only use it gets is to play games, and lately, well, to surf the net.
But is it only computers and computer programs that will be affected by the Millennium Bug?
The year 2000 issue of the Millennium Bug affects computer systems at all levels, including
large mainframe computers, the midsize computers, and also personal computers.
But it also can affect systems or items that you may not think of as being computer-related,
but these items or systems often contain a microchip that is embedded in the read-only
memory of these systems.
These are often referred to as embedded microchip processors or embedded systems.
These systems can be identified by looking at items that have a time date readout or
also that are set to react differently on weekends and weekdays or holidays.
Some examples of systems that have embedded microchips can be found in your home, can
be found in your businesses, or can be found all around us.
Microwave ovens often contain embedded processor chips because of the fact that you can set
the date and time or you can preset when you're going to cook items.
Also vaults or elevators contain micro-embedded chips because there is a time interval set
there in between when the system has last been inspected.
Streetlight systems also contain embedded chips because they are often set to react
differently on weekends or weekdays or holidays.
Small pagers or key telephone systems and small offices are also examples of systems
containing embedded chips.
If these systems don't all act properly when the turn of the century comes about, it may
not be a big problem because a lot of times it might just be a nuisance.
An elevator is not going to quit working midstream.
It may go to the bottom floor.
The doors may remain open until it's been inspected and until its maintenance cycle
has been reset.
However, there are a number of embedded chip systems which may cause problems and these
need to be identified.
Now I live in a small town and I run my own business and I don't depend on a computer
to run my business or my life.
So how can this so-called computer bug affect me here in my town or in my own home?
Well I think the most important thing about the year 2000 problem is that it shouldn't
be viewed as Doomsday or the end of the world.
It is a technological bump in the road but it will pass, we'll get beyond it and we'll
get on with our lives.
But we do need to recognize that we could have some serious interruptions and what can
we do to make sure that we'll be okay until those disruptions pass.
We need to look at Y2K preparation like we do for preparation for natural disasters.
We don't get emotional, we don't scream and cry, we don't shout the world's coming to
the end when we do earthquake or preparedness activities or preparing for hurricanes or
tornadoes and we need to treat Y2K the same way.
We know a lot of the things that we can do because we've done it before for natural disasters
and we can apply those lessons learned to taking precautions for any year 2000 problems.
Floor outages, water shortages, well there are many including top government officials
who simply don't believe that everything will fall apart when the clock strikes the hour
of midnight on December 31, 1999.
The United States government will be ready on some aspects of the year 2000.
The mission critical systems will be ready, however some of the smaller systems perhaps
will not be ready but we're working very diligently on trying to ensure that the systems that
do have the greatest impact to our country, to our economy, to our citizens will in fact
be prepared.
We are again working on contingency plans to ensure that those systems which are not
ready will have a backup and there will be plans in place.
As part of preparing for this challenge we have, the President's Council has identified
34 different sectors within the economy and each one of those sectors is working within
the federal arena as well as working with the private sectors to ensure that the country
will be prepared.
Some of these sectors include the energy sector, public works, emergency services, the different
types of services that would impact you as a citizen be it from going to the grocery
store all the way up through your checks from the internal revenue service or your postal
service.
These are aspects of your daily life will be impacted by this and the federal government
is working on that.
What about our water and our power?
Are state and local public utilities taking action on this problem?
On the electric side we want to go beyond will we lose power or not because I don't
think anybody can give a hundred percent assurance of that.
I think between us and the state government and the federal government everybody we're
trying to make sure that all the utility companies are very aware and have checked out all the
Y2K.
We also want to go one step further and say what if they don't work?
Do you have contingencies in place to take care of it so that we won't have any real
emergencies or real problems if that occur?
We look at that as part of our problem as well.
Now it's pretty easy to figure out where computers are located and how they're being used.
But what about these things called embedded chips?
Embedded chips have programs in them but they're in what's called firmware.
They're actually part of the chip.
To correct the embedded chip, at least most of them, number one we have to find it, number
two we have to replace it.
Many of these embedded chips are made by companies that are out of business.
They've been gone ten years.
For example, in Britain they were doing a test on the power generation system.
There was an embedded chip that monitored the exhaust temperature of a diesel generator.
Well when it went to the year 2000 it tried to divide by zero because it was looking at
how long had the generator run for maintenance purposes.
Well obviously it couldn't divide by zero.
This was an error so it shut down the generator.
They didn't even know the embedded chip was there.
That is going to be the bigger problem I believe.
The chips themselves are fairly easy to replace.
You may have to replace the whole controller but you've got to find it first and there's
so many of them.
So I expect we will have some problems.
I'm not a person that suggests we go back into caves.
This is going to be awful.
Civilization will end.
But I think I would certainly try to print out your financial records on paper.
I would back up data that's very important to you in your business or your home.
I would assume I could have problems and try to prepare for those.
I personally would have some food.
I would have a couple of flashlights and I would be ready.
I don't think we'll need them.
But we prepare for hurricanes and winter storms and I think this might be appropriate to prepare
as well.
You might be surprised to learn how many of these embedded chips are at work in your home.
Some microwaves are date sensitive.
Will you be able to program your VCR on January 1st?
Dates can be programmed into video cameras as well as some still cameras.
Will they work in the year 2000?
The phone.
There are countless computers, microprocessors and chips that monitor, operate and handle
millions of phone calls throughout the world in switching stations on earth as well as
through satellites above.
Are they going to work?
The FCC was asked by a lot of end users for information about telecom companies and in
the beginning of this year started a more concerted effort to get general information
about how they're doing with year 2000.
We've been doing a series of assessments and forums and round tables with the telecommunications
users and the telecom providers to get some information about it.
So we have been monitoring them quite a bit.
We found that most of the telecom companies, for example, at least those that are representing
about 97% of the access lines in the United States have looked at their inventory and
assessed their inventory for Y2K problems and are in the process of remediating and
testing that equipment both within their companies and with other companies and on the public
switch network to a certain degree.
The public switch network is always on, you can't turn it off, so it's very difficult
to do any live testing but there's a good deal of testing still being done.
If you look around your own home, you may find other electronic equipment or systems
that are date sensitive, answering machines, clocks, even some digital wristwatches.
Now if some of these items failed to work on the first day of the new millennium, it
would certainly be frustrating but hardly the end of the world.
So how can we tell if these things will work?
Can they be tested and what can we do to fix them?
The best way to test is, in my opinion, for a small business or a personal user is to
get a program like a Norton Utilities or one of the others that will go out and actually
look at your hardware and software and see if in fact it's compliant.
If it's not compliant, you'll know it but you're going to have some time to fix it.
The problem with going out, setting the date forward, and actually forcing the issue is
rather two or three problems with that.
First of all, if it fails, you're done.
A friend of mine tried that with his video camera.
He said, gee, I wonder if this is year 2K compliant.
So he set the date forward to 1999, December 31st, turned it off, waited a few minutes,
the date flipped over, the camera now thinks it's year 2000, tried to turn it on, wouldn't
turn on, had to send it back to the factory.
So I've got to wonder if, you know, maybe that's the right thing to do on something
that you don't need every day.
I don't want to do that to my computer.
I'd rather go out and see if I can find a non-invasive way to test it and those are
now available.
For the electronics, for your car, for other items that might have these embedded chips
in it, I think you're going to see an enormous amount of attention paid to this in the next
few months.
There are enormous legal problems.
There have already been a couple of MRI machines that embedded chips have found to cause incorrect
dosages if we go past the year 2000.
You can imagine the legal liabilities that could be here.
And so companies are going to work hard on this.
And I think we need to be pretty aware of that.
If it has a date in it, you need to check it.
And many of the things you don't think have dates in it, as the generator example, do.
There are billions of microchips scattered throughout the world.
And even if only one-tenth of 1% of them experience a year 2000 compatibility problem, we're looking
at millions of embedded chips that need to be found, fixed, or replaced.
The year 2000 is nearly upon us.
Will we have enough time?
The President's Council on the year 2000, which was established back in February of 1998 by
executive order, has a multipurpose.
It is to gauge the United States' status on whether they're prepared to meet the challenge
of the year 2000.
They are working with the public sector as well as the private sector, and they're actually
working in partnership to assess what the status is and to try to do all they can to
ensure that the nation is ready.
One of the things that we are doing is working with the private sector as well as the public
sector, be it state governments, local governments, or federal governments on contingency planning
to ensure that we are, in fact, ready when the year 2000 occurs.
As a part of the President's Council, another very important piece of it is the CIO Committee
on the year 2000.
This committee has been in existence for several years, and it is composed of all of the major
government agencies and many of the smaller agencies.
And they're focusing more on an internal view of what's going on within the federal government.
They are working on joint solutions, which we can all share.
We realize we're all in this challenge together, and if we can share solutions, then that will
make the job easier for everyone else.
And we're also attempting to share these solutions with state governments as well as local governments
and anyone else who is willing to listen.
We feel like this is a challenge that impacts everyone within the United States as well
as around the world.
So whatever solutions we've developed, we're sharing them with the rest of the world.
The states have been working on the year 2000 problem for a number of years now.
First thing that we did was establish a year 2000 coordinator, somebody that could oversee
all year 2000 activities.
We then turned around and set up points of contact within state agencies by program,
and then finally established any task forces that were necessary to handle any sticky issues.
Second thing we had to ensure was to make sure that people do not inject any other problems
on top of what we already have.
So we set up contract language to make sure that anything that we purchased was year 2000
compliant.
We also set up guidelines for our own staff so as they develop information systems and
implement technology around the state that it's year 2000 compliant.
From there, the states are taking an inventory of all year 2000 issues.
They're attempting to take stock of the magnitude and the scope of the problem.
Once they've got that inventory, they prioritize their activities.
In particular, some activities actually had to be accomplished before the turn of the
century.
If you look at your driver's license, you may note that it has an expiration date past
the end of the century or voter registration.
There's any number of information systems that have already been corrected ahead of
the turn of the century.
Once we had the prioritization, states went out and what they've been doing the last couple
of years has been fixing the problem.
Now, for those of you who have a personal computer at home, you may be wondering if
the Y2K bug will affect your own computer, your favorite programs, and your software.
How can you be sure you're Y2K compatible?
You know, if your computer's a new enough computer, if it's Pentium, Pentium 2 for
sure, most of the Pentium systems, they probably are compliant.
I wouldn't want to tell them they are and not have them be, but basically you can go
into your time and date and just see if the 2000 is there.
Simulate it.
If you have an accounting program, maybe go into Quicken or something and set a date in
the January 2000 and see if it all responds like it is.
That's not going to tell you for sure it is because you might do a quick report or something
and it might not work under that part of it.
But for the most part, that will tell you if it is if you simulate it.
You can call your software manufacturers per program if you know specifically which programs
you're concerned about.
As far as your computer itself, you can call the hardware manufacturer of the motherboard,
ask them if it's 2000 compliant.
Most of the time it will.
You'll know it if you go into your time and date and just look for that year in there.
If it's not there, it's not there.
As far as the hardware being compliant, it might be totally compliant, but your software
might not be.
Like I said, unless it's a time-dated software where you're using it for finances and accounting
and stuff like that, games and word processors and stuff like that aren't going to have any
impact on it whatsoever.
If you're like most of us, your children enjoy cruising the internet and you and your family
are finding yourselves using email more and more for correspondence.
Is there a danger we can lose these capabilities in the year 2000?
There are a lot of people that enjoy using the internet and surfing, looking for web
pages, using email.
Do I believe that they would be affected?
Yes, I do.
I think everybody will be affected in some way, either in preparation for the problem
or in wishing they had repaired.
Both from an ISP standpoint and a customer standpoint, there are steps that need to be
taken in order to cover that problem.
They may not be affected from their provider's standpoint, but their equipment may not be
up to speed.
They may have some software that could have some problems.
There are steps that can be taken to remedy that, but it is a potential effect for everyone
that deals with computers or businesses that use computers.
Now let's go downtown and hunt the Y2K bug.
Many questions have been raised regarding financial institutions, Wall Street, stocks
and funds.
Of course, there's the ubiquitous ATM machine.
Will it give you your money on January 1st?
Well the guiding principle in Y2K preparation has been to minimize the impact on customers.
We took a four-step approach.
First of all, we took a complete inventory of what we had, looked at all the systems
and equipment and everything that we had to deal with.
Then we went into a detection phase where we determined if there was any problem.
Of course, the next step is remediation.
The final step is testing.
We hope to have that testing completed very early on.
All of the remediation will be completed by December 31, 1998.
Many wonder if this millennium bug will affect the United States Postal Service.
That's a valid question.
Much of today's mail is processed with the aid of computerized sorting systems, but the
post office is only one branch of the federal government.
What about Social Security?
Will people get their Social Security checks on time?
And the IRS?
Will they have problems computing our taxes and returning our refunds?
And Medicare?
And how about national defense?
What is our government doing to become Y2K compliant?
The Social Security Administration has been responsible for heading up our Chief Information
Officers Council Committee on year 2000, and we have, within the federal government, used
the experiences of the Social Security Administration to more or less lay the groundwork for how
the rest of the federal government has been addressing their information technology issues.
The Internal Revenue Service has some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that they will be ready January 31, 1999, and if you're due for a refund,
you will get your refund.
However, you still have to file your tax return.
The tax system will be working fine.
It will be able to process your forms, so don't count on missing your tax deadline.
You do need to file your taxes because the Internal Revenue Service will be ready.
Well, I like to consider the year 2000 problem as a chain of events.
In particular, we're one or more links in a chain, actually several chains.
So besides states having to deal with the issues of computers and networking technology
and other infrastructure issues, the first thing they have to deal with is the fact that
we exchange information electronically.
Data no longer passes by paper, it passes electronically through wires, and therefore
we need to ensure that, for instance, the federal government and the states exchange
information properly now that contain dates.
This not only occurs between federal government and states, but also from states to local
communities and to private industry and to the public at large.
So that's the first area that states tackled.
The second area that the states had to tackle in the chain is the fact that we're all dependent
on others.
We have suppliers.
We may even have distributors.
We have people supplying anything from paper and pencil to computer software and to police
cars and fire engines and whatever the case may be.
And so therefore we're dependent on a lot of people for a lot of things.
But also, on the reverse side of that coin, people are dependent on state government and
on governments in general to provide services.
Not only though are governments dependent on suppliers and these constituents dependent
on state or local government, but also state and local governments dependent on their constituents.
They need to get their tax revenue.
They need to be able to ensure that the welfare check gets to the individual.
We need to make sure that people can get to work at the turn of the century.
So again, we're all parts of these chains and we all depend on one another.
The next area that we have to be concerned with is the fact that throughout all these
links not only are there basic computers, but there's embedded technologies.
Here's what's known as the embedded chips.
And there we have to continually look for and investigate.
What I like to think of is trying to find a lot of needles in a haystack.
And then we have to investigate each needle and determine whether or not it has a year
2000 implication and how severe it is and obviously remediate those that need remediation.
So the states are also tackling that.
Finally, we have to deal with possible year 2000 litigation.
What happens if someone can't take that elevator when they walk to work that first day and
they have a heart attack in the stairwell?
Is anybody liable for that?
What happens if a government service can't be delivered?
What happens if the ambulance doesn't get to a house on time?
Are these going to be issues for litigation in the future?
Unfortunately, we have a very litigious society, so this is something that governments are
dealing with right now.
What I can stress the most for folks is that government, whether it's state, local, or
the federal level, wants people to recognize that view this as a hurricane that's been
spotted on the radar.
We're not quite sure where it's headed.
We have a general idea.
We don't know exactly where it's going to hit.
We may know how strong the hurricane is right now, but we want to make sure that people
get prepared, that they get their flashlights, their batteries, they batten down the hatches.
If they look like they're going to be in the direct line of the millennium bug, then they
need to take appropriate action, move to higher ground.
So that's really the basic goal of government right now is to get people aware of the problem,
help them find the tools to get a handle on the scope and the magnitude, and get prepared.
Because the hurricane's on the horizon, hopefully it's just a minor brush and we just get a
little bit wet.
The government and big business are spending millions of dollars and employing countless
computer experts to prepare themselves for the new millennium.
But what about the small business man?
I think it's really important for small businesses to get on board now.
In particular, I'd have them view it as a business opportunity.
What happens if your competitor stumbles?
Can you be there to pick up their business, to pick up the pieces?
You have several hurdles before you.
You have to ensure that your organization, your plant, your office infrastructure is
all year 2000 compliant.
You also have to be concerned with suppliers and distributors.
Are they going to be there for you at the turn of the century?
Remember when we had a well-known package delivery firm go on strike?
Companies that solely used that firm were affected, but companies that had multiple
package delivery firms could shift their business to someone else.
You may be able to capitalize on being year 2000 compliant sooner than later.
Customers are more likely to do business with firms that they know are going to be here
after the turn of the century.
But don't wait.
You're going to find that parts may be in short supply at the end of next year or in
the first quarter of year 2000.
What about trying to get a hold of that technician from the factory to install something?
So don't wait.
Get yourself, get your organization year 2000 ready and be there in case your arch rival
stumbles to pick up the pieces, to pick up the business.
Do it now.
Well, just like the citizenry, the businesses will be affected by worst-case scenario, critical
infrastructure, failure, or interruption.
But also small and medium-sized businesses are more vulnerable because they seem to be
less aware of the year 2000 problem.
They also have less resources to draw on in terms of personnel and money in order to do
remediation.
However, small businesses may have an advantage because they're smaller, they're more flexible.
So they can do good contingency planning that will allow them to continue to function and
provide goods and services to the public.
Well, you might be asking yourself, what kind of things can go wrong in a small shop?
Well, let's look around.
Most cash registers are date-sensitive.
Will they recognize the year 2000?
There have already been problems reported with credit cards having expiration dates
ending in 00, the two digits representing the year 2000.
Well, some machines see the 00 as the year 1900, assuming then that the card expired
100 years ago.
The small businessman has other concerns as well.
Take that print shop across the street.
Some companies now use time-saving modern equipment to help them in their daily business.
Many have offices where we can find date-sensitive equipment like copiers, fax machines, time
card clocks, security cameras, surveillance systems and alarms, elevators, and such things
as automated sprinklers, heating and ventilating systems, just to name a few.
There are so many things we now take for granted that are operated or monitored by computers
and microprocessors.
So what can we do to prepare ourselves?
Preparation for the year 2000 issue consists of a few basic steps, which should first start
with the naming or the identification of a year 2000 project coordinator or manager within
your business unit.
This person can spearhead the issue and can be a reporting mechanism to have the people
filter the information to them, and they can report the progress as to how people are going
or how they're going about resolving this situation.
The four basic steps that you need to follow to address the year 2000 issue consist of
awareness, analysis, remediation, and certification.
The awareness step, the first step, consists of really taking an inventory of all of those
items out there that are going to be affected by year 2000.
You need to think about what hardware, what software systems you have, think of those
items that have embedded chips, and then think beyond the obvious.
If you don't understand or don't know the issue well enough, you maybe need to first
educate yourself a little bit on the year 2000 issue, and you can do this by going to
the library.
There's a lot of periodicals and information in the libraries that contain information
on year 2000.
Also, in the news media, the internet also is a good source, or just by talking to friends
and business associates, you can identify what it is you need to be going after and
follow through with your inventory step.
The second step is an analysis step, and what you need to do here is take that inventory
list that you put together and analyze each one of those items on the list to determine
whether or not those items are going to be year 2000 compliant or not.
This step is going to involve getting some vendors involved and also the manufacturers
of some of the items that are on your list.
You're going to need to solicit help from these folks, and you're also going to be getting
their guidance, and they're going to be probably making some of the changes and doing some
of the testing for you as well.
The third step that you need to follow is remediation.
This step involves actually making the changes.
You've started out with your inventory list, you've paired that down because you've analyzed
which items need to be remediated, and now you're making the actual changes.
This might involve buying some software upgrades if you're dealing with software, it might
be replacing hardware, it might be replacing the actual unit, or you might even decide
that you can do without it, but you need to make the changes now.
And then another portion of the remediation phase is testing.
You need to test it, make sure it's working properly in the environment that you're in
now, and put it back into production so you can use it.
The fourth and final step is certification, and this step involves testing.
It's a little beyond the testing and remediation phase, but it's testing the system or the
item in a year 2000 compliant environment so that you can be assured that it's going
to work correctly in the next century.
I almost forgot, the on-time delivery of supplies may not be a sure thing.
Just because you're prepared for the year 2000 doesn't mean all the people you do business
with are going to be Y2K compliant.
Like the links in the chain, we're only as strong as the weakest link, so it might be
a good idea for you to talk with your suppliers ahead of time and be prepared.
Now we've looked in our homes at business, both big and small, and our federal government.
What about our local city and county governments, our emergency services?
Is anything being done to make them aware and to bring them into the new millennium
with as few problems as possible?
The states are primarily working with local governments to ensure that they're aware of
the problem and that they can find the necessary resources to resolve their year 2000 issues.
In particular, you will find many state agencies sending people out in various forums, whether
it's a school board meeting or whether it's a county commissioner's annual convention,
whatever the forum, they're out there to ensure that people know where to look and can also
ask questions and gain from the experiences of state government on this issue.
In particular, people are going to find an awful lot of information out on the internet.
There are various websites in many states that tackle every aspect of the year 2000
issue.
From there, you will find states working with various regulatory bodies, such as the Public
Utilities Commission, to ensure that those regulated industries, those basic infrastructure
needs of local communities will be there in the year 2000.
But state government can't do it all.
The local communities through their local governments are going to have to tackle this
issue just like state government has tackled its issues relative to the year 2000 problem.
The Millennium Bug doesn't differentiate between a large metropolitan area and a small
town.
It's going to hit each of us to some degree.
State government is here to help ensure that state services are available and that you
are aware of the problem and that you have the necessary, that you can find the necessary
resources to resolve your particular issues with the year 2000.
The federal government is working closely with the state governments and we're starting
to work with the local governments as well.
I mentioned some of the associations that we're working with, such as the National Association
of County Governments, the National Association of State Information Resource Executives.
So we are working with them.
My philosophy on year 2000 is all the solutions that we have developed have been developed
at taxpayer's expense and I want to give these solutions away.
We're all meeting this challenge together.
We have a lot of resources that are available.
We have developed six brochures on the year 2000.
One of the brochures is aimed primarily at citizens.
It is to be mentioned in Parade Magazine and it will be available through the Consumer
Information Center in Pueblo, Colorado.
So this is one way people at the local level can find out more about year 2000.
We have developed several white papers on the year 2000, which would be useful to county
and state governments as well as citizens.
These are available out on our websites, again, which are available at the local libraries.
We have also been doing presentations.
I have traveled everywhere from London to Denmark to Oregon, Texas, California, trying
to give away what the federal government has developed on year 2000 solutions.
We have a lot to offer, we feel, and we want to share this with anybody who is willing
to listen.
One of our primary focuses is outreach and my staff works very diligently between the
brochures, the websites.
The websites are very popular.
So our philosophy is to give it away.
Another thing that we have developed is close alliances with some of these state associations
and we are trying to iron out some of the problems that could possibly occur, such as
the data exchange.
We have met with state officials on several occasions to try to come up with solutions
on how we can have a smooth exchange of information with the state governments and we work very
closely with them.
We also have set up email and fax lists with a lot of the different townships, a lot of
the state governments, a lot of the county governments, and we send out newsletters to
these organizations and we are trying to get down into rural America to make sure that
they know what is available and what they should be taking a look at.
We have also been working with the Native American community.
We have done a brochure, we are going to be addressing the National Congress of American
Indians in October.
That is a group of 5,000 Native Americans who are coming together and we want to make
a presence there to make them aware of year 2000.
So we have a lot of outreach efforts underway.
We again feel like we have a lot to offer and we want to share that information with
anyone who is willing to listen to it.
Is there anything a person like you or I can do to ensure that our own communities are
prepared for the year 2000?
The average person should be educating themselves about year 2000.
Ironically the best source of information is the internet.
If you don't have a computer, most of us know someone who has one, or we can go to our public
library and we can use the internet connections that are there.
And once we get access to the information, we really need to read as much as possible
about it.
So don't take my word for it or anybody's word about it.
You really need to find out for yourself exactly what is this year 2000 problem and how could
it affect you, your family, and your neighborhood.
I think we need to look at this from a grassroots level.
We need to make sure that we ourselves in our own home are ready to handle any kind
of challenges that are thrown at us, work with our neighbors, make sure that they are
ready also, and work our way up the chain so we get our community, our town, and have
conversations with your businesses, organizations, and your local government as to what are the
contingency plans if we experience your 2000 problems.
The invasion of the Millennium Bug is soon upon us, but we don't have to stand helpless
like a corn stalk in the path of the storm of locusts.
We can do much to fight this invasion.
Knowledge and preparation are our best weapons.
Ask questions of experts.
Most towns have computer stores or consulting services who can help determine if your computer
hardware and software are ready for the new millennium.
Many appliances and systems can be tested right at home.
Write or call manufacturers of equipment you are unsure of.
And there's a lot of help at your fingertips if you're able to explore the internet.
A great place to start is at www.y2k.gov.
Soon the sun will set on the 20th century.
It will rise the next day on a new age of man.
And in the next few months we must look around us, in our homes, our businesses, our communities,
and find the hiding places of the Millennium Bug.
Now once found, we can fix, replace, or repair the systems and software in which it may be
lurking.
We need to seek out experts for their advice and talk to others, our friends, community
leaders, and business associates.
This is the type of pest control we need to rid ourselves of this computer bug.
And working together, we can look forward to the dawn of a new millennium, a dawn where
we will awaken not to the sound of silence, but to the sounds of science.
This is PBS.