I'm forwarding this message from Ilya Stein, who is not on the time zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the time mailing list, please direct replies appropriately. --ado -----Original Message----- From: Ilya.Shtein@metavante.com [mailto:Ilya.Shtein@metavante.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 5:59 To: tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Cc: Troy.Bradley@metavante.com Subject: Time Zone abbreviations - request 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@metavante.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- This message contains confidential and proprietary information of the sender, and is intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. Any use, distribution, copying or disclosure by any other person is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the e-mail sender immediately, and delete the original message without making a copy.