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The media in Europe are way ahead of the U.S. media on y2k. The headline in this newspaper is positively gloom and doom. Consider this one: "German failure to tackle bug threatens chaos across Europe." The story is worse.
The next thing you know, some reporter at FORBES will do a hatchet job on THE SCOTSMAN, the way one of them did on BUSINESS WEEK. ("Fear sells magazines," trumpeted Michael Noer in the March 12 issue of FORBES.)
This is from THE SCOTSMAN (June 10).
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GERMAN companies are sleep-walking towards a millennium computer bomb disaster - and the fallout threatens chaos across Europe.
"Germany is causing concern within Europe because almost 74 per cent of companies there say they don't expect to complete compliance measures by 31 December, 1999," according to SRI International, a hi-tech consultancy. . . .
"The worrying thing about Germany is that by and large it is still in [Year 2000] denial," said Andy Kyte, a research director at the Gartner Group. "I don't see any evidence of clear and unambiguous leadership in the political or business community where heavyweight and reputable individuals are prepared to stand up and be counted."
He added: "You could apply the same criticisms to Austria, Switzerland, Spain, France and Italy: sophisticated economies with high dependence on computer systems and still a very small percentage of IT budgets being diverted to 2000 compliance."
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