time zone geography

[Paul Eggert]

> From: Chuck Ellis [mailto:cellis at gaz.com]
> Sent: Friday, February 16, 2001 5:45 PM

> I am willing to devote some more time to trying to create the
> fundamental tz map that is needed for the generalized application
> that Arthur is discussing, but it is too much for one person alone

It would very nice to have such a map and I'm happy to hear of
progress being made in this area.  Sorry, I haven't had time to think
about it much, though.

Do you know of the existing free databases in this area?  They might
help you get started (or, if they're low quality, I suppose they might
slow you down).  Here are the databases I know about; I've added links
to them in my latest proposed patch to tz-link.htm.

* Manifold.net's Free Maps and GIS Data includes a Manifold-format map
  of world time zone boundaries distributed under the GNU General Public
  License (GPL).  <http://www.manifold.net/download/freemaps.html>

* The GeoCommunity's International Time Zones publishes the same data in
  other formats.  <http://software.geocomm.com/data/intl_timezones.html>

* The US Geological Survey's National Atlas of the United States
  publishes the Time Zones of the United States in the public domain.
  <http://www.nationalatlas.gov/timeznm.html>

* The GeoCommunity lists several commercial sources for International
  Time Zones and Time Zone Data.  Obviously they can't be copied, but
  they might be useful for spot checks.
  <http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/features/timezones/>