Y2K Redux and the Case Against Tech Monopolies in Government
This month’s global IT disruption is Y2K twenty-four years late. Does anyone else remember New Year’s Eve 1999? I don’t because I was a small child, but my father, who at the time was the systems editor for a west coast newspaper, remembers being at the office that night after accepting a retainer bonus and testing the main newspaper system for weeks, only to have to have nothing happen. No global computer crash, no grounded flights, no Armageddon. So, imagine my surprise upon arriving to my desk job at state government one warm July morning to find that about half of my floor had zero computer access. Thus unencumbered by the responsibilities of the workday, I sat around for eight hours and chitchatted with similarly effected colleagues. From my phone screen, I could see that this was not just our workplace, but flights, 911 operators, healthcare facilities. This is the Y2K fallout late-’90s doomsday preppers thought was coming, only about 24 years too late. However, this year’s Y2K i...