At 09:41 14-05-2014, Kim Davies wrote:
My suggestion would be to focus on what you have proposed without the "official international governance" part. What seems to be lacking is a best practices document that describes the optimal way for the powers-that-be to enact time zone changes. Such a document could explain which communities should be advised or consulted in enacting such a change, and the recommended amount of lead times that different industries need for changes to propagate. It could also describe potential risks (such as economic impacts) of making such changes, particularly with a short lead time.
I agree that it would be better to focus on the suggestion without "official international governance". The intent of the time zone database is a record of the time set on the clocks in a region. The database can be used as a source of information for someone in a different location to find out the local time in a region. The problems could be: (a) The short lead time (b) Lack of information about the time change (c) Politics I gather that everyone agrees that it is better to stay far away from (c). :-)
If such a best practices document existed, that would be a good foundation that one could use to pursue awareness with the relevant governing agencies. Jumping straight to official governance route seems to me to less likely to achieve anything. In my experience, governments are generally quite eager to have practical documents developed by experts that they can use to help guide them. They do not have to have to be enforced by treaty to have utility.
The suggestion might be about having a best practices document for (a) and (b). It's a good idea. One of the issues is how to do that without getting near (c). I would suggest having a file similar to the Theory file to explain (a) and (b). Regards, -sm