Teen SWAT Team for Y2K

[Glenn Ericson <Glenn-Ericson@xxxxxxx>]

Question  would you  want a Teen SWAT team for Y2K
in Your  shop?
What is the  value or drawbacks of doing  this  to  you.
( See articcle  below)
                         Glenn Ericson

From: Ian Wells 


Teen SWAT Team for Y2K
by Spencer E. Ante

9:50 a.m.  30.Sep.98.PDT
The millennium bug has spawned an entire industry of compliance consultants
who promise to stamp out the
bug wherever it occurs -- for a few million dollars. But where does that
leave the little guy?

"If Y2K happens, the nonprofits will be hit hard for services, but they're
the least equipped to handle it," said
Mick Winter, who hit on the idea of helping nonprofits deal with Y2K while
he was building a computer network
for the Bay Area Homeless Coalition, a California group seeking accessible
housing.

"Their computers aren't going to work and they have no one to fix them,"
Winters said.

The problem is this: Many nonprofits operate on meager budgets, using older
equipment, with employees who
have minimal technical expertise. To make things worse, many of these
groups rely on databases to carry out
their day-to-day work.

Winter realized that these databases were sitting ducks for the Y2K
problem. But instead of calling up Arthur
Andersen or another pricey "Big Five" consulting firm, he turned to a bunch
of 17-year-olds.

Winter is mobilizing students from his daughter's high school into a
volunteer Y2K SWAT team. They will fan
out across the San Francisco Bay Area with orders to eradicate the dreaded
millennium bug from the
computers of groups least able to cope with the problem.

"I like the idea because it gives our students an opportunity to give back
to the community," said Mark
Morrison, the director of Napa New Technology High School, an innovative
high school that Winter's daugher
attends as a senior.

Morrison agreed to support Winter's proposal. He said the task force will
enlist 10 to 12 students and be up and
running before the end of the year, if not sooner.

The Napa New Technology School opened its doors in 1996 to prepare students
for the digital workplace.
Taking its cue from the intensely competitive business culture of nearby
Silicon Valley, the school is run like a
start-up company, with each student getting a computer and email account.

The curriculum combines a traditional education program with heavy doses of
science, multimedia, software
certification, and community service -- which Winter saw as an opportunity.

Seniors must complete 10 hours of community service each semester, and
complete an internship. Morrison
approved Winter's proposal that the "Bugbuster" task force could fulfill
either of those requirements.

Students will be taught to analyze a group's computers and propose bug
fixes. They'll be armed with an
inspection checklist and floppy disk containing software that troubleshoots
a computer and is able to run basic
fixes and upgrades.

If students can't fix a problem themselves, they will refer their clients
to a commercial consultant. It's also
possible, Morrison said, that students with advanced Y2K skills could
charge nonprofits a nominal fee for their
work.

"It's a résumé-builder for technical skills as well as a community
service," added Morrison, who also sees the
educational value of the project. "Y2K is a supreme example of the downside
of information technology."
http://www.wired.com/news/print_version/email/explode-infobeat/culture/story
/15333.html


Bugbusters is the first tangible project of the Napa Valley Y2K Action
Group, a group Winter founded a few
months ago to educate leaders in his community on the millennium bug.

For his part, Winter says the Bugbuster program represents a practical
approach to solving the problem,
something that Y2K survivalists who are stockpiling their dried lentils and
hunkering down for Armageddon
might wish to consider.







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