Subject: [Ietf-calsify] ISO Standard relevant to timezone and time representation discussions

From: Dave.Thewlis at calconnect.org (David C. Thewlis)
Date: Thu Sep 16 19:27:19 2004

There's an ISO standard which I think is very relevant to the work being
done by the people on these discussion lists, in particular in discussions
of representation and management of time values.  The standard in question
is:

ISO 19108 (2002), Geographic Information:  Temporal Schema
developed by ISO/TC211, Geograhic Information/Geomatics

The scope of this standard is described as:

"This International Standard defines concepts for describing temporal
characteristics of geographic information. It depends upon existing
information technology standards for the interchange of temporal
information. It provides a basis for defining temporal feature attributes,
feature operations, and feature associations, and for defining the temporal
aspects of metadata about geographic information. Since this standard is
concerned with the temporal characteristics of geographic information as
they are abstracted from the real world, it emphasises valid time rather
than transaction time."

I know at least one person on this discussion list has looked at this
standard and there may be others, if anyone else would care to comment on
its relevance.

I'll put info below on how to get a copy.

Dave Thewlis, Executive Director 
The Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium
+1 707 840 9391 (voice)
+1 415 946 3454 (fax)
+1 707 498 2238 (mobile)
[email-masked]
www.calconnect.org

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How to get a copy of ISO 19108

You can purchse a copy of this standard for $18 by downloading it from the
ANSI webstore (you can also get a copy directly from ISO but it costs 140
Swiss Francs that way).

Point your browser to:  http://webstore.ansi.org/ansidocstore/default.asp

Enter "19108" in the top left "search" box and click go

You'll be offered two choices:  "ISO 19108:2002" for $113.00" and
"INCITS/ISO 19108:2002" for $18.  They are the same document; INCITS (the
U.S. national IT standards committee) has registered the international
standard as a parallel national standard and can thus sell it at its own
charge, which it has set very low.

The site will talk you through the process of purchasing a copy on a credit
card and downloading it.  Note that you have to agree on the copyright and
license agreement; the bottom line is you can't copy and distribute it or
make it available on a network (they want to you get a separate copy for
each person who will use it).  

But at $18 I'm not sure that is a serious impediment.

Dave Thewlis

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From: nsb at guppylake.com (Nathaniel Borenstein)
Date: Fri Sep 17 07:03:12 2004

FYI, I'm the "at least one person" Dave refers to, and I found this (as  
I've told some of you) eye-opening.  I'm not sure that it will have any  
direct consequences for us, but I found it useful to look at a rather  
different perspective on the same problems we're focused on here.   
Anyway at $18, it's a cheap exercise in broadening one's perspective.   
-- Nathaniel

On Sep 16, 2004, at 10:26 PM, David C. Thewlis wrote:

> Point your browser to:   
> http://webstore.ansi.org/ansidocstore/default.asp
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ietf-calsify mailing list
> [email-masked]
> http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-calsify
>
>