[tz] Attempting to get speedier tz updates

[Robert Elz]

    Date:        Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:16:11 +0100
    From:        "Clive D.W. Feather" <clive at davros.org>
    Message-ID:  <20111020131611.GD27386 at davros.org>

In a message that started out on another thread I don't want to
get involved with ...

  | While it would be nice if they sent us updates, we can't force them.

That's true, but I kind of suspect, that we have never even asked.

I had been wondering about that, and considering doming something
about it, for months now - and just possibly "considering" is all
it would ever have been, however, perhaps we should attempt a little
better than that.

Attempting to contact everyone responsible, directly, would be a lot
of work, just identifying the parties involved, so I thought it might
be possible to take an easier route, and just ask the UN to do the
contact work for us - that is, we write to the UN Secretary General,
and ask that the message be redistributed to all member states - the
message being a request that they ask whoever (whatever agency) is
responsible for actually implementing time issues, to please inform us
of any planned or actual changes - and perhaps, if they're able, any
historical data they have.

If people think this is a reasonable idea then I will implement it.
Note: I don't much care if you expect it to actually succeed - if it fails,
it has cost almost nothing, but if anyone can see an actual negative
possibility from this, then I'd like to hear about it.

Also, while I'm happy to draft (and circulate to the list before sending)
the letter involved, it would probably be nice from the UN's viewpoint, if
we could send in both English and French (and anything else?  I doubt we need 
to consider attempting all 6 official languages.)   That I cannot do,
so I'd need assistance with translation into French (and anything else
suggested as a good idea) - and that assistance needs to be from a fluent
(native) speaker I believe, not someone who learned the language in school.
Any volunteers?  (It won't be very long.)

kre