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CalConnect XIX
October 4-8 2010
Hosted by IBM/Lotus
Littleton, MA

CalConnect XX
February 7-11 2011
Hosted by University of California at Berkeley

CalConnect XXI
May 23-27 or June 6-10 2011
TBD

CalConnect XXII
Oct 3-7 2011
Hosted by Kerio Technologies
Plzen, Czech Republic

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CalConnect Timezone Workshop
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Microsoft, Redmond, Washington

Revised 29 January 2009: Agenda Modified

Summary

Changes to world time zones can have huge impacts to the successful working operation of software for many devices including personal computers, laptops, mobile devices, clocks, GPS devices, and much more. When devices do not have the latest time zone rules, especially when it comes to periodically changing time zone information (e.g. standard vs. daylight time), then many problems can occur. The problems include, but are not limited to:
  • Being late or early to scheduled appointments because of outdated time zone information for calendaring applications
  • Records of when events actually occurred being wrong due to invalid or incorrect timestamps (ex. pictures and files, cell phone records and call logs, etc)
  • Devices not acting upon scheduled events that are critical to residential or commercial operations (for example, turn on or shut down of devices according to a schedule, alarm clocks not activating when set)
  • Schedulng errors for travel, commerce, and many other critical fields of human activity
  • Obscure, hard to debug, software failures whenever something is implemented based on time
This workshop is intended to help define and also set the foundations for building an industry standard set of time zone services. The services will provide the backbone of data and information flow that is necessary to keep devices, worldwide, in sync with changes to the world's time zones.

CalConnect invites you to attend an open, one-day workshop on Timezone implementation and management in information technology, and how it can be improved. The workshop will be held Tuesday, February 3, 2009, from 0830-1700 Pacific Time (UTC-8), hosted by Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. Registration is by invitation, and is limited to approximately 30 people. No fee will be charged. Breakfast, lunch and snacks will be provided. There will be a reception or dinner after the workshop.

This workshop is intended for and open by invitation to parties with an interest in Timezones, how they are currently implemented and managed, and what to do about them in the future. We particularly want to attract representatives of other industry and technology areas to gain a broad perspective on the problems with Timezones as implemented today, and the relevance of our proposed direction. You do not need to be a CalConnect member to attend the workshop.

Come be a part of something innovative and industry-changing! We need your help to define the service, its data, and its distribution. We need your help to decide on an approach that is acceptable to key industry stakeholders from all areas.


Remote Participation

While we hope that key stakeholders and contributors to resolving timezone issues will be able to attend in person, we recognize that there are interested parties who will not be able to do so. Therefore we will provide a conference bridge for phoning in if there is sufficient interest.


Introduction

The lack of a standardized timezone registry and service has led to a number of significant problems for vendors and users alike. A recent example is the widespread impact of, and changes required to implement, Extended Daylight Savings Time in the United States in 2007.

Among these problems are
  • No good way for applications to detect timezone definition changes.
  • No standard definition for timezones, causing interoperability issues.
  • Need for clients to store huge amounts of timezone information, due to the lack of a standard repository.
  • Need to send timezone related information with any time data.
CalConnect and its members are working on and promoting the development of standards and services to address this pressing need. This workshop is intended to inform consumers of timezone data from a variety of industries and areas on our approach, and to develop consensus on an approach acceptable to all.


Agenda
All times shown are Pacific Time, UTC-8.
08.30-09.00 Breakfast
09.00-09.30 Welcome
Welcome, intro to Calconnect, how Calconnect got involved in trying to determine a way forward for Timezones.
09.30-10.00 Introductions
Each participant introduces themselves and explains their interest in this and what they might like to see as an outcome. Plus comment on other interested or related parties that may be involved or should be involved.
10.00-10.30 Overview of the problem as seen by CalConnect
Quick statement of what the workshop organizers see as the problem we are trying to solve, with follow up discussion to see whether anyone has other approaches to suggest.
10.30-11.00 Break (Tea/Coffee, etc.)
11.00-12.00 How Timezone problems manifest in other areas (e.g. travel, health care, IT, OS, APIs, usability, etc.)
12.00-12.30 CalConnect's proposed way forward
Presentation on Timezone Registry RFC and Timezone Service Protocol as currently seen
12.30-13.30 Lunch
13.30-14.00 Microsoft work on Timezones
14.00-15.30 Open discussion on proposal and alternatives
Open discussion on the proposal presented in the 12.00-12.30 session and possible alternative approaches
15.30-16.00 Break (Tea/Coffee etc.)
16.00-17.00 Summary, conclusions and way forward
Evening Optional dinner
No-host event

Registration

There is no fee for attending the workshop either in person or remotely, but you must register for an invitation so we know who and how many are coming or hope to participate remotely. We wish to ensure that interested parties from as many different technology areas as possible can attend, and we need to be able to determine the need for the teleconference or Live Meeting web conferencing. To request an invitation to the event, please go to Timezone Workshop Request for Invitation.

You will be asked to indicate whether you intend to be present in person or remotely. Information about conferencing in will be sent to registered remote participants shortly before the workshop.


Discussion List

CalConnect has established a public discussion list to allow workshop participants and others to discuss the topics in advance of the workshop. Please go to CalConnect Timezone Workshop Discussion List for more information and to sign up for the discussion list.





Invitation to the CalConnect Event at Microsoft

CalConnect will be holding its fourteenth membership meeting, Roundtable XIV, at Microsoft on Wednesday-Friday, February 4-6, 2009. If you plan to attend the Timezone Workshop and your organization is not a member of CalConnect, this would be a great opportunity for you to attend the Roundtable as an observer to determine if your organization is interested in CalConnect membership. To find out more about Roundtable XIV and being an observer, please go to CalConnect XIV. If your organization IS a member of CalConnect, please plan on staying over for the Roundtable.

(Note that CalConnect will also be conducting its CalConnect Interoperability Test Event on February 2-4 at Microsoft immediately prior to the Roudntable. If you are planning to participate in that event you are welcome to try and participate in the Timezone Workshop as well, but you may find scheduling your time complicated - so plan on having a person available to fill in for you.) For more information about the interoperability test event, please see C.I.T.E. February 2009.


Logistics Information

Logistics information for the Timezone Workshop including transportation, hotel and meeting location, may be found on the Timezone Workshop Logistics page.

We hope you will be able to join us at the Timezone workshop, and if you do, please accept our invitation to stay on for the CalConnect Roundtable.


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