Y2K Preparedness Reports, Other Info On Internet

WASHINGTON – Not surprisingly, volumes of Y2K information are floating in cyberspace, ranging from millennium sky-is-falling and head-in-the-sand ruminations from private citizens to Y2K web sites maintained by some of the public sector’s top computer experts. In the final installment of our four-part Y2K series, stateline.org looks at some of the most helpful sites.

One great spot to stay abreast of state-based Y2K developments is a federal web site, www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/mks/yr2000/y2khome.htm. The home page at this address has a number of hyperlinks for sites including the Chief Information Officers Council Committee on Year 2000. Clicking on this leads to the U.S. Government’s CIO Council Committee on Year 2000 Information Directory.

Under a blue banner marked “Government” is a subheading titled “US States.” (sic) This yields Y2K web sites maintained by all 50 states, as well as by a few local governments (National Association of Counties and Albuquerque, N.M., to name two).

If you return to the www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/mks/yr2000/y2khome.htm home page, there are also hyperlinks for the President’s Council on Year 2000 Conversion and the International Y2K Conference, a repository for more than 80 papers written by millennium bug experts. Making it easier to find what you want, these treatises are divided into categories that include Banking and Finance, Communications, Government’s Role and Impact.

A final interesting wrinkle to the www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/mks/yr2000/y2khome.htm home page is a link called Y2K for Kids, which can also serve as a helpful primer for adults looking to get up to speed on the millennium bug. The page contains the federal government’s toll-free Y2K hotline, (1-888-872-4925) and suggests that children keep flashlights, batteries, candles and games around for the arrival of January 1!

Also available:

• www.year2000.com/y2karticles.html is a compilation of Y2K-related press clippings. (Also has a cool clock function listing months, days, hours, minutes and seconds to 2000).
• www.y2ktoday.com has domestic and international millennium bug stories, as well as something called the y2ktoday Resource Guide which contains useful background material about the subject.
• www.amrinc.net/nasire/y2k leads to a web page maintained by the National Association of State Resource Information Executives, a group of computer chief information officers from 49 states. One state, Oregon, dropped out of NASIRE over a disagreement over how the organization records Y2K data.
• www.cassandraproject.org/legis.html#bills contains current proposed Y2K legislation to be enacted at the state level.