[IP] Retrospective analyses of Y2K
Begin forwarded message:
From: Douglass Carmichael <doug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 31, 2006 1:55:45 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [IP] Retrospective analyses of Y2K
Dave,
I am in fact working on an article. My view is that y2k was real, it was
well handled with hard work inside organizations, and increased IT
spending
in 98-99 used IT budgets for 2000-2001 and, since it was spent early,
led
the slowing down in the IT economy starting in Jan 2000, the NASDAQ
was down
in feb and the Dow in March (but blamed later on Bush2).
I saw first hand heroic efforts inside organizations, and saw
companies turn
off systems and bring them back on line slowly over weeks or even months
after jan 1. Huge amounts of new equipment and software, and inventories
done well for the first time, were purchased, mostly in 99.
The reason it is important is because it was a big deal well handled and
then ignored - repressed. It was considered wimpy to have a y2k
problem. In
one case I saw directly, declining profit, based on increased y2k IT
costs,
was blamed on Asian financial problems.
It worked well because responsibility was internal to organizations and
people were given responsibility to fix it, or in same cases publically
pretend it was fixed.
Most techno-social crisis, like global warming, are not internal, so
no real
responsibility can be delegated. This is the real lesson of y2k.
The real crisis of our time - the use of tech to concentrate wealth and
create arms sales - is avoided, and avoiding serious discussion of
y2k is
just part of the general theme of avoiding the obvious we could learn
from,
and have to face.
Love to discuss these ideas and others...
doug
-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 10:28 AM
To: ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [IP] Retrospective analyses of Y2K
Begin forwarded message:
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 31, 2006 9:59:40 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Retrospective analyses of Y2K
Dave:
This is a query posed by a colleague, that you might wish IP to have
a go at
answering:
Has there been any respectable retrospective analysis of Y2K, from a
technical, social, economic or any other viewpoint? Or is there only
anecdote?
Please let me know if you are aware of anything that has been
published, or is in preparation.
Cheers
Brian
--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon
Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell@xxxxxxxxx PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/
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