The Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium (CalConnect), through a number of activities over time, has demonstrated an active interest in addressing problems related to timezones for calendaring and scheduling systems for a while. The standards in this space, namely iCalendar, were developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). A number of issues have spurred this work within CalConnect, including (but not limited to) the US EDST changes from 2007. As "consumers" of timezone data (rather than "producers" - which relates to the job done by the community represented by this mailing list, tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov) we are eager to see a reliable, timely and secure process for handling timezones. In CalConnects Timezone Technical Committee (TC), we are presently developing a timezone service protocol that will allow for direct updates of client systems, rather than relying on the current process where systems typically get updated via OS upgrades, if at all. As part of this effort, we are also developing a generic timezone description format in XML so that interchange of timezone data can be done efficiently, and so that we can include structured meta-data like KML for boundary information. CalConnect would like to see a formal "standardization" of timezone names with a registry. This issue has been a problem in the iCalendar space where presently it is difficult to rely on a timezone definition with a given name, often resulting in interoperability problems. CalConnect would like to see timezone data passed "by reference" rather than "by value" for efficiency purposes (iCalendar requires that a VTIMEZONE component always be included in the iCalendar data stream when a timezone is referenced by an event). Earlier this year, CalConnect hosted a timezone workshop at one of its face-to-face Roundtables. The primary focus of the workshop was to discuss the problem statement and development of the protocol, data format and registry process. Since then we have also initiated discussions in the IETF on these topics. As "consumers" of timezone data CalConnect feels strongly about the need for these improvements. None of this necessarily impacts the process of "producing" timezone data as carried out by this list's community. Nonetheless, we care greatly about the "production" process because we have to rely on this data. We have informally discussed within the CalConnect Timezone TC what we would like to see for the future of the timezone data. We have not come to any firm conclusions as to the best way forward. Mr. Olson's email, therefore, comes as a timely reminder that this needs to be addressed now. Possible options (as already indicated by Mr. Olson) include: - Moving it to an "open source" location (such as SourceForge, which has been already suggested) - Setting up some kind of open consortium of interested parties to manage timezone data - Moving responsibility to an existing standards body (e.g., the IETF or the Internet Society - ISOC) - Moving responsibility to a government entity (e.g., the UN) Unfortunately, this debate can easily get mired in "politics" rather than technical issues. e.g., who gets to control the data, how is the service paid for, who gets to contribute. At the end of the day, CalConnect favors an approach which results in the least amount of disruption. The open community process developed via this list's community has clearly been a success, and should be considered as a potential model going forward. CalConnect considers tightening up of the security of the timezone data to be essential. Given that many systems rely on the data being produced, we collectively need a secure distribution (i.e. a secure, reliable server, signed data etc). Whilst there have not been any obvious "attacks" against timezone data, one cannot assume there wont be any in the future. This is a propitious time to achieve consensus on the best way to secure the data. This may very well impose additional requirements on hosting the data in the future, e.g., cost of maintaining the server, signing certificates etc). CalConnect looks forward to the discussions on this issue, and would like to hear the thoughts of other members of this community. CalConnect is ready to host another face-to-face timezone workshop, open to all interested parties, at our member meeting in February 2010. Mike Douglass douglm@rpi.edu Chair Timezone Technical Committee, on behalf of CalConnect