The view from the International Computing Centre.

• Author: Gelbstein, Eduardo E.
• Position: Year 2000 date change computer problem

Many information technology phenomena, such as the Internet and the Year 2000 problem, have become extremely well known. Other information technology activities are so well integrated into our daily activities that we even forget they are there. These include not only computer systems, but also telephone, satellite and data networks, control systems in industry, bank teller machines, controls for elevators and air conditioning, and many others. These become highly visible when they do not work.

And also at budget time.

The so-called Year 2000 problem or "Y2K bug", however, presents a major challenge to organizations worldwide. What is it?

Simply that many systems and controls around the world using computing technology will not be able to tell the difference between the year 1900 and the year 2000. In benign cases, the outcome will be a wrong answer (a 105-year-old lady receives a letter asking her to report to a primary school-to the computer, she is five years old). In serious cases, the computer system, not knowing how to handle the dilemma, will just give up and fail to work.

Why does the problem exist?

In the early days of commercial computing, memory was a highly specialized and expensive resource. Programmers had to be creative to get around memory limitations and one of these shortcuts consisted of leaving out the first two digits from the year. After all, nobody expected the life of their programmes to reach 30 years and, besides, the next generations of programmers would fix the problem. Unfortunately, for most organizations, both assumptions proved to be wrong.

The Gartner Group-respected information technology industry analysts - estimates that the total cost to resolve Year 2000 problems around the world will reach $600 billion. The impact of this on budgets and resources for information technology is without precedent.

Will the world come to a stop on 1 January 2000?

The doomsayers say yes. This is debatable. There are many computer systems that can be described as "sinkers" if they fail. These include all the transaction oriented systems used by banks, airlines, air traffic control and railways, the logistics and distribution industries, automated manufacturing and telephone exchanges and their control systems. Because of this, all of these systems are the subject of considerable attention and effort.

The general approach to this project contains the following steps:

Problem awareness: Is this really relevant to our...