Time Zone abbreviations - request

[Ilya.Shtein at metavante.com]

Hello,

Our company is in need for standard abbreviations that would map one-to-one
to the names used in the Olson database. These abbreviations must be as
short as possible and significantly shorter than the conventional Olson
names. We can definitely come up with our own abbreviations, but I am
wondering if any such abbreviations exist in the Olson db. This is
important because we want to be able to point our external partners to a
source they are already familiar with, rather than invent something
homegrown and impose it on our partners.
If such abbreviations do not exist, is it possible to create them? We think
it will be beneficial for many users who have space limitations and can't
use the Olson names "as is", but need access to the functionality. We are
willing to create such list, work with the keepers of the Olson DB to make
it official, and maintain the list if needed.

One possible implementation could consist of two parts:

1) a two-letter ocean/continent abbreviation:

Africa            Af
America     Am
Antarctica  An
Arctic            Ar
Asia        As
Atlantic    At
Australia   Au
Europe            Eu
Indian            In
Mideast     Me
Pacific           Pa
Miscellaneous     <no abbreviation>

2) an abbreviation of the city name; we haven't done any research yet of
how many letters are needed, but something like a standard airport code
could be used here, perhaps with 1-2 additional characters for additional
information (for example, Riyadh87 would be RUH87).

We are very interested in getting the answer as soon as possible.

Thank you,
-----------------------------------------
Ilya Shtein
Enterprise Software Architecture
Metavante Technologies
ilya.shtein at metavante.com

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