International Interactive Communications Society

Mention the Y2K problem to many small-business owners and you will get a big "Huh?" For business owners struggling to keep up with their current workloads, the only Ks they regularly deal with are 401(k)s. "Y2K" stands for year 2000 and the so-called millennium bug. Basically, the problem is that computers and tiny chips implanted in all sorts of machinery and devices were designed to record dates as two-digit numerals, 98 for 1998, for example.

Mention the Y2K problem to many small-business owners and you will get a big "Huh?" For business owners struggling to keep up with their current workloads, the only Ks they regularly deal with are 401(k)s. "Y2K" stands for year 2000 and the so-called millennium bug. Basically, the problem is that computers and tiny little chips implanted in all sorts of machinery and devices were designed to record dates as two-digit numerals, 98 for 1998, for example.

Funny how things change. Last year, they were four struggling art students, waiting outside the doors of ad agencies to show their portfolios. Then they spent six frenetic months of their own time creating an electronic catalogue for their school, Pasadena's prestigious Art Center College of Design, where they applied all the design, graphics and computer skills they had learned in class.

Funny how things change. Last year, they were four struggling art students, waiting outside the doors of ad agencies to show their portfolios. Then they spent six frenetic months of their own time creating an electronic catalogue for their school, Pasadena's prestigious Art Center College of Design, where they applied all the design, graphics and computer skills they had learned in class.

The soap opera, set in a hospital emergency room, opens with a doctor and nurse chatting amiably. Suddenly, the doors burst open and a bloody, badly injured car accident victim is wheeled into the room on a stretcher. Doctors and nurses, clad in blue scrub uniforms, scurry to his aid while paramedics shout details of his injuries and his vital signs.

The soap opera, set in a hospital emergency room, opens with a doctor and nurse chatting amiably. Suddenly, the doors burst open and a bloody, badly injured car accident victim is wheeled into the room on a stretcher. Doctors and nurses, clad in blue scrub uniforms, scurry to his aid while paramedics shout details of his injuries and vital signs.

Think encyclopedias and you think of Oxford dons in flowing gowns and the tweedy world of New York publishing. But what you really should be thinking is: Redmond, Wash. That's the home of Microsoft Corp., whose Encarta CD-ROM encyclopedia, replete with video and sound, has become the world's best-selling encyclopedia in its first year on the market. The sudden ascendance of Encarta is more than just another indication that the electronic information age has arrived.