[tz] Introduction and apology for slamming you "with that TZ is a legal thing" commentary out of the blue.

[Kevin Lyda]

On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 17:41, Todd Glassey <tglassey at certichron.com> wrote:
> That said - the TZ data is used in virtually all commercial and electronic
> document/instrument processing systems operational today. The problem is
> that the Time Zone data itself (while created through a standards process)
> has largely been managed as  an ad-hoc offering and this was accepted
> everywhere because the party and hosting entity for this were the US
> Government NIH and Dr. Olson.

If I might humbly respond.  As someone who has recently read through a
lot of the list, I think you are not fully informed about the project.

First, changes to timezones are done in an ad-hoc manner throughout
the world.  Even just looking at recent changes demonstrates that
updates can occur with little warning.

Second, it has been my experience in my working life that "formal
process" is quite frequently at odds with "rapid change."  The first
does not ban the second, but it's a frequent outcome.

It seems to me that Robert Elz will best know how to organise this
project into the future.  He has been a longtime contributor - since
near the beginning if not the beginning - and has had a good deal of
influence over how it has been organised.

While I have had limited experience with the tzinfo project, I do have
a good deal of experience on usenet and mailing lists.  Showing up on
a list and discussing legal issues and stating how a project should be
organised as an introduction is, shall we say, suboptimal to achieving
the goals you may desire.  And I think if you look over the history of
this project you'll understand why your suggestions might not lead to
the best outcome.

The best source of that is here: http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/

Kevin

-- 
Kevin Lyda
Dublin, Ireland
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