On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 9:54 AM, Burns, Jamie BGI SYD < Jamie.Burns@barclaysglobal.com> wrote:
Leaving EST as it is when it can mean Standard or Summer time or Australian Eastern or US Eastern is just propogating ambiguity.
Instead of drifting along with an ambiguous consensus, why dont we show some leadership and set an unambigous standard. [... engage government ... ]
Different locations in Eastern Australia have varied interpretations of summer time (eg. start/end dates, amount of clock shifts). To avoid ambiguity, use an explicit UTC offset (UTC+11) or specify a location ('Australia/Sydney'). In my view, the tz database should record existing practice rather than trying to promote new standards. In any case, engaging the relevant governments is likely to be difficult. Daylight savings is quite controversial in parts of Australia. For example, a new political party was founded in 2008 to promote adoption of daylight savings for south-east Queensland. Reference: http://ds4seq.com/ Regards, Eric Ulevik