Re: Predictable Internet Time

[Phillip Hallam-Baker <[e-mail]>]

On Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 2:03 PM, Eliot Lear <[e-mail]> wrote

> On 1/3/17 7:24 AM, Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote:
>
> Umm, my proposal was to ignore the opinion of the ITU in this matter as in
> everything else.
>
>
> That doesn't work in all cases because there are often applications that
> require that the clock time on a device not vary from UTC by some set
> amount.  I think they're fixing for a big UTC leap second shindig in the
> next few years, anyway.
>
> Eliot
>

​My analysis of the politics of the situation is as follows

* The decision makers are the governments, not the ITU

*​ The governments will do whatever their banking and broadcast sectors
tell them.

* The banking and broadcast sections will do whatever Microsoft, Google,
Apple, etc agree on provided that the transition is not going to be more of
a problem than the status quo.

​* If ​there is a non ITU proposal on the table that threatens to replace
ITU as the place where the decision is taken that stands a chance of being
adopted, ITU will prefer to co-opt it rather than lose the appearance of
control.


We already have UT0, UT1 and UT2 and several other variants. The mapping
from UT1 to UTC can be varied by committee.