On 05/13/2014 06:29 PM, Matt Johnson wrote:

Cumulatively this could have an economic impact, so one would think it would be in a countries own best interest to give sufficient notice.

One would think so, especially seen the actual rather significant cost for all company's doing business in that country/region to make sure all systems (if it is at all possible or even noticed before it's to late that it is affected ) are up to date .

I think it often bottoms down to (some form of) ignorance.
Something like "How hard can it be to set the clock one hour forward" , ignoring or not having a clue of the impact this is having.

I highly doubt the politicians who make these kind of "hey i have a great idea, let's change the start date / introduce / stop with using DST next week/month" would be in any way way bothered by some kind of "international guidelines".

IMHO the only real impact would be to have some big (local) company's knock on that door and ask to stop this silly behavior. But of course the people who might actually do that (ceo etc level) just yell at the tech people to "get it fixed"..

And then you have of course the cultural/social factor introduced by linking daylight saving to the Ramadan, who's start date is a variable factor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan#Beginning
Something for which I see no real solution besides country's like Morocco or Egypt deciding to not use an other offset during the Ramadan period.

Just my 2 cents :)

Gunther