What's a catchy phrase that will get the uninitiated's attention that the game's not over? How can we alert the media and the public to the challenges ahead: First business/school days: Monday, Tuesday (1/3, 1/4) Month end: January 31/Feb 1 Leap Year: Feb 29 Others?

A metaphor that reinforces the value of the preparedness efforts on Y2K - be they remediation, testing, contingency planning or just awareness building; be they technological, management, systems, environmental, economic, social, political or spiritual.

Monday is the second inning? the second quarter?

Ideally, we could come up with a metaphor that would also connote other global challenges facing us, to which we could apply the cooperation, communication and coordination skills and resources which Y2K generated.

Challenges like global warming, etc. Note: discussion of these is beyond the scope of GICC. I mention these as reference only, NOT to spark a dialogue or debate.

And ideally we can express this metaphor in a sound byte that will connect with everyone.

I look forward to hearing your ideas. Let's co-create something for the public domain, and the public good.

Thanks!

Jan Nickerson Building community, not crises

-- Jan Nickerson (JaNickrson@aol.com), January 02, 2000

Answers

Oops, I also meant to mention the ripple effects in the potentional challenges facing us, for which Y2K is a catalyst:

Bad data infecting compliant systems Undetected errors Possible oil shortages Supply chain impact International impact Economic impact

Thanks, Jan

-- Jan Nickerson (Boston, MA) (JaNickrson@aol.com), January 02, 2000.

Just saw one over on TimeBomb 2000:

Do we begin what may be, in economic terms, the death of a thousand cuts, or will it be "Revenge of the Nonessential Systems!"

Or a different analogy on TBY2K:

What termites do to wood this y2k thing could do the same thing to our computers.

Mine, along the Titanic analogy is...

How do we know we arent ripped open beneath the visible water line? We need to look first. Accurate assessment takes time. Shallow thinking is not recommended when floating in deep waters.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 02, 2000.

Jan; If "they" did not listen before do we really think they will listen now?, no matter what the catchy phrase. We went out to freinds for awhile on New Years Eve and tried that out. The response was: it's over, there was no problem, let's get on with life, I don't want to hear any more about it. End of story.

Richard

-- Richard Wright (rtwright@grassrootsgroup.com), January 02, 2000.

"co-create"... ok... gotta start at the beginning. don't start looking for the polished product. so... thought seeds: a zipper analogy, a barn door, uhh... a hydra one more hole in the dike naaa, too trite. so is the train wreck. but there is the inertia thing - this huge mass in motion with something (possibly) eating at it that will bring it down if not removed. ...? -mep-

-- mike porter (meporter@hotmail.com), January 02, 2000.

It's not over til the fat lady sings.

The fat lady hasn't sung yet.

-- but you can (bet@she.will), January 02, 2000.

After a stirring overture, the curtain rises on Act 1, Scene 1.

As opera fans know, the really ugly stuff usually doesn't show up until Act 2.

-- (div@fat.ladywithhorns), January 02, 2000.

This is not original...I read it "somewhere" in the last two days: (Author) said, it's as if 10% of the population showed up at the gym to exercise this weekend, and since this 10% are those who were prepared and fit and ready, the exercise was fine...however starting Monday, the other 90% will show up at the gym and the fitness and readiness of these folks is not as encouraging...!!

-- EileenMacEnery (macenery@gte.net), January 03, 2000.

This is not original...I read it "somewhere" in the last two days: (Author) said, it's as if 10% of the population showed up at the gym to exercise this weekend, and since this 10% are those who were prepared and fit and ready, the exercise was fine...however starting Monday, the other 90% will show up at the gym and the fitness and readiness of these folks is not as encouraging...!!

Another analogy might be "The dominoes aren't done yet!" ...referring to those set-ups of dominoes where the first domino ends up effecting thousands and thousands down the line. This weekend may have just been the first couple of dominos.

-- EileenMacEnery (macenery@gte.net), January 03, 2000.

It is very hard to explain this situation to those who are unfamiliar with computer systems. The first day of 'production' went smoothly for critical functions, but the project is far from over. There are weeks, and months, and perhaps years of discovery and repairs to be done.

Car analogies seem to work well with the general population, since it is a complex machine that most everyone is familiar with. You could say that the first 2000 model car was able to be driven...but does it have breaks, do all the little features of the car really work? Only time on the road will tell. I am not saying this eloquently, but maybe someone can expand on this theme and come up with something 'catchy'.

-- pat ricalton (ricklerat@aol.com), January 03, 2000.

Those that can't see the forest for the trees are never out of the woods.

-- Mike Johnson (affirm2000@aol.com), January 03, 2000.

...or maybe "What lies ahead is what lies behind...lies."

-- Mike Johnson (affirm2000@aol.com), January 03, 2000.

We are just beginning our journey through a year-long Millennium Eve, from January 1, 2000 to January 1, 2001. Stay tuned!

-- Michael Brownlee (Tucson) (michael@visibiliti.com), January 03, 2000.

Radiation exposure. A person takes a radiation hit, damage occurs at cellular level throughout body. Now the waiting begins.

From the outside they are still walking/talking, saying it didn't hurt at all. Maybe this radiation stuff is over hyped.

Will the liver function continue? How about kidneys? Bone marrow failure?

This will probably not be a "catchy" enough metaphor for John/Jane Q. Public, but may be a useful gedanken. If you suspected that someone had been exposed to radiation, and wasn't telling, where would you look for clues?

-- Tom Stein (indagatr@istar.ca), January 04, 2000.