State officials in Maine are now seeking independent verification of their Y2K remediation efforts (from Y2KToday):

http://www.y2ktoday.com/modules/home/default.asp?id=501

This is what I personally consider to be good news (however tiny). It demonstrates that it is not enough to merely claim successful remediation, but to have a independent 3rd party verify (to the best extent possible in the time remaining) those efforts. The stakes here are way, way too high to accept unverified claims.

It could of course be argued that any verification could not possibly be thorough and complete and while that is true, if I were a resident of that state, I would sleep just a little better knowing that someone other than the 'involved parties' agrees that the remediation effort was likely to be effective. (Note: Maine is still seeking an organization to perform the verification, so it's not clear whether that would be the conclusion of the verifying organization.)

Hats off to the Maine state officials pursuing this angle. I wish my state was.

Now, how about the same kind of verification for electric and telecom utilities?

-Arnie

-- Arnie Rimmer (arnie_rimmer@usa.net), November 06, 1998

Answers

Wouldn't it be great if this was indeed what everyone could say: "We THINK that we are FINISHED with our Y2K remediation and testing work, we now would like someone to come in and VERIFY this prior to actually breaking the champagne at our Y2K Compliant Celebration Party."

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), November 06, 1998.

This week, New Hampshire announced that it too is looking for a verification outfit. Must be a Yankee thing.

-- JDCLark (yankeejdc@aol.com), November 13, 1998.