On 2025-12-03 11:36, Kim Davies via tz wrote:
Some years back, when we identified a spate of government regulators making time zone policy changes on short notice, we started some explicit outreach to governments to send messages on what best practices are and the consequences of doing it poorly. It is something we've reinforced periodically when we speak with governments around the typical shift into and out of daylight saving time.
Yes, and I've tried to do that sort of thing as recently as this week, although the corporation that runs Nunavik hasn't returned my calls....
Would a similar approach to software vendors be desirable, particuarly notable applications that have a large audience that use naked TZ identifiers, to encourage them to do something else? If so, what is the guidance?
Good idea. Currently the only guidance we have is something along the lines of "Be like tzselect, except nicer with CLDR and/or maps". Which is admittedly vague. And the guidance is not well organized.
It'd be helpful to add discussion to theory.html or tz-link.html (or even a new page) that gives more detailed advice. Ideally there would be a reference implementation that does both CLDR and maps, and we could point developers at that implementation. All this would be some work, though.
ICANN has general engagement activities with software vendors in areas like universal acceptance of Internet identifiers and adoption of emerging technical standards. Maybe if there are talking points around this can be added to the litany of things they do outreach on.
Thanks, I didn't know that. Is that litany public? How can suggestions for improvements be made?
