Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - 
Stewart Stevenson, head of IT planning
at the Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh
at the Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh
STEVENSON forecasts that 1998 will be the year the computer programming language Java becomes firmly entrenched in the market.
He says: "Quite a lot happened in 1997, but 1998 will see Java being adopted by a lot of people for a lot of things.
"The financial services industry is making increasing use of personal computers and servers, but the mainframe still dominates. Java is ideal because it enables you to write once and move anywhere ... it de-couples you from using any one operating system.
"1998 will also be the year of the smart card. We are going to see them used in trials in the local area; in Dunfermline and at Edinburgh University, where Mondex cards will be issued to all students in the autumn. It still won't rule the world. That will came later.
"It's also going to be the year in which banks get involved in interactive TV; banking in the home through the British interactive broadcasting initiative, which includes Sky.
"There will also be a significant number of people banking down the cables. There are already trials underway in Cardiff and I would expect to see that extend to Scotland.
"Certainly one of the key features people ask for in surveys is having access to banking services.
"It's probably also the year palmtops will become serious. The introduction of the Psion 5 series has taken it to much greater heights. Windows CE is not as good as the Psion system but Bill Gates is beginning to get serious about palmtops."
The Scotsman's Technology Forecasts for 1998
