On 10/4/2026 12:57 PM, Kim Davies via tz wrote:
Quoting Mark Davis (U) via tz on Saturday October 03, 2026:
We've discussed in Unicode about putting up a page with a similar warning. I
would encourage an IANA web page on the topic. While the TZDB is unknown to
many people, a page would provide a place for others to link to.
There is no doubt more we can do here, and I think there is merit in
a dedicated straightforward resource that provides a step-by-step for
policy makers. We've done a mix of presentations, engagements and
articles on the topics, e.g. in 2023:
Because of this propagation time, it is crucial that policymakers
provide a year or more advance notice to IANA before changes to their
time zone policies take effect. Without this lead time it is almost
guaranteed there will be great confusion caused by the use of
inconsistently distributed time zone data.
I understand the ask for a year's notice but the list of changes made
where a year's notice was given is very short.
In the US, the Cruz amendment to the current "Sunshine Protection Act"
sets the effective date two years out from enactment (which will need to
be modified if enacted in November or December before the bill dies).
The 2021 version had an effective date of November 2023 when it passed
the Senate in March 2022. So at least the senate committee has received
the message on giving advance notice. The effective 2007 change in dates
for DST was enacted in 2005. The effective 1987 change to the beginning
date for DST was enacted in July 1986.
I am not sure how well the public in Canada would have taken it if all
of this year's changes were proclaimed effective March 2027 instead of
immediately. The end users didn't want to wait a year for the change.
Perhaps the presentation can include illustrations (without insulting
specific policymakers) of where short notice caused a problem?
With that said I think the key is identifying the right forums to share this
work so it actually makes a useful impact. The nature of the work we do at IANA
and broadly within ICANN tends to be more with national governments. With the
recent changes in Canada it seems this is being more driven at a provincial
level, and there is probably not a good nexus there to reach the right people.
So, where can we spread the message to help it resonate? Is there any place
where the message could help make an impactful difference to policymaking?
Perhaps through the ITU? While there is no international approval
required for a country to change their time zones, educating the right
agencies in each country might help the decision makers in their
countries. (Although with local politics the decision makers may still
decide to ignore the technical hurdles.)
