Millennium Bug Handbook

The Victorian Government and Business Victoria have released a 225-page handbook to assist Victorian businesses and individual computer users in ensuring their electronic systems are Year-2000 compliant. The book is written by Philip Stanley, an independent IT consultant specialising in Y2K matters who was previously a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at the University of Sydney.

The book contains twenty-seven chapters dedicated to the various aspects of the problem and its likely effects on various parties and was written to be of use to any 'corporations small businesses, students and educational organisations' subject to the bug. It complements other Government work on the issue such as its 'Millennium Bug - Step on It!' advertising campaign and CD-ROM, its free advice line 1800 11 2000 and its comprehensive website at www.y2k.dsd.vic.gov.au.

Both the author and the Government warn that the Y2K bug is a 'relative' problem; the size of the problem is likely to be relative to that of the company or organisation, and the extent to which it is solved will be relative to the lengths to which the organisation goes.

(Stanley, Philip 'The Millennium Bug Handbook', Business Victoria/Information Australia/BRW Business Library, Melbourne, 1998; Office of the Minister for Industry Science and Technology, September 29, 1998)