ATC is almost Y2k-Ready
By Monica L. Rausch Associate Editor
June 1999
Good news: The FAA reports Y2K compliancy testing was performed on air traffic systems at Denver International, and preliminary results show that the systems will perform properly in the year 2000.
The tests involved the ATC systems at Denver's tower, the Denver TRACON, the Colorado Springs TRACON, the Grand Junction tower, and the Longmont, CO, en route center — basically a sample of all the systems that operate throughout the country. Tests were done running two systems separately, one handling traffic and one having clocks set forward to simulate the rollover to the year 2000. The data recorded by both are being compared, but the results so far look good, the agency says.
FAA has completed the renovation and testing of all systems requiring Y2K work, it says, and it is now in the process of putting them to work in the field. It seems the agency's compliancy deadline of June 30, 1999, will be met.
Get on the Cluetrain
The Internet is making information easier to gather and thereby creating
a marketplace that is smarter. One can shop around, compare, and research
before buying, all from a desktop. This new market, in fact, may be more
intelligent than most companies. At least that's the philosophy embraced
by proponents of Cluetrain, a new movement on the Internet.
Those signing the Cluetrain manifesto, found on its website at www.cluetrain.com, believe that companies who truly want to survive in an Internet marketplace need to drop their corporate-ease way of speaking — using terms like "consumers" and "mission statements" — and realize that markets are made up of human beings. To reach these human beings, companies need to talk like them.
According to Cluetrain's website, "Learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about ’listening to customers.'"
Companies would do best to allow their employees to speak as individuals on their behalf, as one human to another. Also, companies have to be reactive and interactive in responses if they want to make an impression on customers.
Tom Perry, president of Avion Flight Centre, Inc., in Midland, TX, runs two Internet forums for Compuserv, and says there's value in this philosophy, especially when it comes to responding to customers. "(Companies) are used to putting out an ad, and people just watching it. They're not nimble enough to respond interactively," he says.
With the informal and quick communications of email, customers expect more personal responses, he says. "Talk to me, if I'm a customer. I need to have a human response. If I send you an email about a situation, I want a real reply."
If you have information technology issues you would like addressed in this column, call Monica Rausch at (920) 563-1648 or e-mail to [email protected]
