The Millennium bug - what's it all about?

If you ever want to know what the state of the nation is, ask a taxi driver. Politics, the economy, sport and celebrities, they know it all. I bet the black cab driver that presumably rescued ex-Welsh Secretary, Ron Davies, knew about his unfortunate situation before his wife or the national press did.

Travelling in the back of a cab this week, I was drawn into conversation about the millennium bug. These things always happen when people ask you what you do.
The conversation went something like this:

Taxi driver: What do you do?
Me: I'm a journalist
TD: What do you write about?
Me: Mainly, things like the millennium bug and IT legal issues (I went for the simplest topics to explain).
TD: Millennium bug. I've read about that, but it's only a problem that affects the UK because we use the most technology.
Me: Erm, actually?
TD: Of course though, it's not that big a problem as it will mostly affect microwaves and other things with those little date chips in. Can't see what all the fuss is about.

Misinformation does greater damage than no information at all. While Mr taxi driver may not sit up at night worrying about the problem, he has a right to understand why his life is not running smoothly.

What I should have pointed out to him was this:
Mr taxi driver drives around London on 1 January 2000. He has a fare to pick up at a specific time, but the car clock isn't working, as it is not Y2K-compliant, so he sees the wrong time. His digital watch also displays the wrong time. He drives past Big Ben and sees the correct time. Panics as he is late. Rushes to pick up his fare, but there is a huge traffic jam. The lights are out of sequence because the Highways Agency missed the deadline and its systems are not compliant.

Mr Taxi driver tries to call his controller but can't get through, as there are millennium-related problems with his telco's switches which cannot connect the call.

Driving past his bank, he decides to stop to check his bank balance. But he can't, as the bank systems fail to recognise his card which has a 00 expiry date. By this time, he has missed his fare, is stuck in traffic and very frustrated. Meanwhile, his wife is sat at home in the dark due to a temporary blip with the electricity supply because of the millennium bug. She, too, is fuming because her pay cheque has not gone into her account. The small business she works for didn't act quickly enough and the payroll application didn't issue Mrs taxi driver's salary.

Whether you are a multimillion pound conglomerate or a SME, somewhere down the line your Y2K project will have an affect on someone.

There is a long way to go before the depth of the problem is understood, and as an industry we have a lot of explaining to do. And if Mr taxi driver is typical of the nation's awareness of the millennium bug, then the nation is in for a very big shock on 1 January 2000.