On 3/25/25 13:41, Dale Ghent via tz wrote:
I think a more realistic strategy would be to make the technical process of implementing
timezone adjustments more visible and understandable. It would include a clearer
framework for government representatives.... The current IANA TZDB website doesn't really
say much beyond "we exist"
Currently, the website[1] says the following about this. Suggestions for
improving the wording are welcome.
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Coordinating with governments and distributors
As discussed in "How Time Zones Are Coordinated", the time zone database
relies on collaboration among governments, the time zone database
volunteer community, and data distributors downstream.
If your government plans to change its time zone boundaries or daylight
saving rules, please send email to tz@iana.org well in advance, as this
will lessen confusion and will coordinate updates to many cell phones,
computers, and other devices around the world. In your email, please
cite the legislation or regulation that specifies the change, so that it
can be checked for details such as the exact times when clock
transitions occur. It is OK if a rule change is planned to affect clocks
far into the future, as a long-planned change can easily be reverted or
otherwise altered with a year's notice before the change would have
affected clocks.
There is no fixed schedule for tzdb releases. However, typically a
release occurs every few months. Many downstream timezone data
distributors wait for a tzdb release before they produce an update to
time zone behavior in consumer devices and software products. After a
release, various parties must integrate, test, and roll out an update
before end users see changes. These updates can be expensive, for both
the quality assurance process and the overall cost of shipping and
installing updates to each device's copy of tzdb. Updates may be batched
with other updates and may take substantial time to reach end users
after a release. Older devices may no longer be supported and thus may
never be updated, which means they will continue to use out-of-date rules.
For these reasons any rule change should be promulgated at least a year
before it affects how clocks operate; otherwise, there is a good chance
that many clocks will be wrong due to delays in propagating updates, and
that residents will be confused or even actively resist the change. The
shorter the notice, the more likely clock problems will arise; see "On
the Timing of Time Zone Changes" for examples.
[1]: https://data.iana.org/time-zones/tz-link.html#coordinating
