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John Koskinen, the President's top spokesman on y2k, admitted in a recent interview that 75% of the world's nations have done nothing about y2k.
This, of course, means the Third World. That world is less dependent on mainframes, though highly dependent on world trade and foreign loans.
One question is: Can the developed world's computers interface with the Third World's, and not get re-infected? This question assumes that the developed world's computers will be compliant in 2000, a wild fantasy if there ever was one.
Koskinen talks as if money could solve the problem. But he also speaks of crisis management in late 1999.
This is from GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NEWS (May 18).
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Agencies will get enough money to fix their year 2000 problems—as long as they can justify the spending, the chief of the president’s year 2000 council said last month.
“We will spend whatever we need to spend,” said John Koskinen, chairman of the President’s Council on the Year 2000 Conversion. “Even if it turns out to be another $3 billion or even $5 billion—which I don’t think it will get that high—that’s not a number that we can’t deal with.” . . .
Koskinen said the administration will create committees, comprised of members from agencies, that will “move into a crisis-management mode” late next year after agencies test the readiness of their systems.
Koskinen said his chief concern is ensuring that the systems that state governments share with federal agencies are year 2000-ready. . . .
“If we just get the federal systems ready it won’t be enough,” he said. “We need to make sure all domestic and international systems will work or else the U.S. economy will be affected.” . . .
He also stressed the importance of year 2000 readiness in countries that conduct business with the United States.
“The best surveys I have seen show at least half, in some cases 75 percent, of the countries in the world have not done anything,” Koskinen said. “It is a foreign policy issue: Can we communicate with other countries? What will the impact be for the stability in foreign countries and for the U.S. economy?”
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