Taskforce 2000 and the century date change problem

The potentially disastrous century date change problem, the “Millennium Bug”, originated because early computer programmers didn’t think their work would last more than a few years. That was understandable. What was not was the mature IT industry’s seeming indifference to the implications of the continued use of that work, exacerbated by its reluctance to take a lead in sorting the problem out even when it was drawn to its attention. In the UK that lead was initiated not by “computer experts” but by a small not-for-profit body, Taskforce 2000, set up by the Major government in late 1996: I was executive director of that body. At its peak we had five full-time staff, only one of whom could be described as a computer expert. We had a tiny budget (a few hundred thousand pounds) coming from public and private sources – particularly in the financial sector. Our objective was to resolve the problem by raising awareness of it amongst leaders of the large organisations that were its principal potential victims. Because of limited funds, we had to do this largely via the media.

Our relationship with the media was difficult. The message – especially warnings of the consequences of failure – had to be robust: there was little point in saying, “don’t worry it’s probably going to be OK”. From the outset, however, much of the media (there were exceptions) seemed determined to brand the exercise as a millenarian fantasy. It distorted what was said, in particular by treating warnings as predictions. It promulgated the “experts tell us that planes will fall from the sky” myth. We had no option but to live with that – time was short and the publicity was working. Incidentally, I’m not sure we were much helped by the Blair government’s belated recognition of the issue.

Fixing the problem was a dreary and thankless task carried out largely by thousands of internal junior and middle ranking IT staff, checking, repairing and testing countless lines of computer code. It attracted little extra personal reward and added nothing to an individual’s CV – not for them the glamour and riches of the dotcom boom.

It was an expensive and massive undertaking. And, in interesting contrast to nearly all expensive and massive computer undertakings, it was completed successfully and on time: in mid 1996 practically nothing had been done in the public sector and little in the private sector (exceptions included Marks & Spencer and Tesco), yet by early 1999 the job was essentially complete. By 2000, those involved knew they had achieved something important. The media, however, saw the fact that all went smoothly as vindication of their view that it was a nonsense, if not a hoax: a view that has now become established. It’s painful but we have had to accept it.

Robin Guenier

(Executive Director, Taskforce 2000: 1996 – 2000)

rwg: 2ii.2008