Universal World Time
Universal World Time is a problem that has managed to dodge a viable solution for many years. A native universal world time solution was never going to be practically possible before the modern internet, but it is now here & available with the Erthbeet Universal World Time (EBT) proposal. The UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) standard is not a universal world time, but is a time specification & global time reference point. Though necessary, it still does not address the effort & confusion caused by having to calculate time differences & daylight savings status between the time zones, and it does not address time notation ambiguity.
Universal World Time by Erthbeet is a sensible & economical solution for global time
The Erthbeet Time interface for the public is via the Erthbeet Time calculator where a sender will typically compose an Erthbeet Time to post or advertise to many global recipients. The Erthbeet time protocol (EBT) communicates with all other time zones on the user’s behalf, instantly displaying their own local time for an event. The vast majority of people using Erthbeet Time will be recipients of an Erthbeet Universal Time Link (UTL). UTL recipients will simply click the UTL link & a second page will open with their local time for the event. So in this regard, time zone conversion is now truly effortless to recipients, provided the sender uses Erthbeet Time.
This article describes how Erthbeet Time has resolved the four main problems associated with a native universal world time solution:
- Convincing all governments to use a standardized notational format
- Proposing a globally universal Clock Time that the public will accept
- Finding a solution to unify or to standardize time zones
- Finding a solution to negate varying daylight savings time offsets
Convincing All Governments to use a Standardized Notational Format √
‘Standardized notational format’ simply means to express a date/time with the day, month, year, hour, minute & second in the same order, & with the same abbreviations, delimiters, spacing & numeral padding. For example the time: Saturday 6th August 2015 3:45pm in Tennessee, USA, can be reasonably expressed in at least 87 possible permutations, listed here.
Obviously, time notation ambiguity is now a big problem for an internet world. The Erthbeet Universal World Time for this date is ei6945 & that is the same format all over the world. Because Erthbeet Universal World Time is an existing format which cannot be altered, we don’t have to convince governments to change the format of their standard ambiguous time that they are familiar with. Problem #1 solved.
Proposing a Globally Universal Clock Time that the Public Will Accept √
It is not practical or economical to use the same standard time around the world. If we all tried to use the same time clock, such as UTC, then each country zone would have to maintain its own stationary, software & scheduling independently to the rest of the world. For example, a particular banks’ opening and closing hours, which is 9am – 5pm, would have to be printed differently for its international branches, which may translate to something like 11pm – 7am. The Erthbeet Time format is short & easy to remember, & inter-operates with existing time zone clocks while leaving them unaffected. Because of these factors, Erthbeet Time is the best yet universal time clock solution that will be acceptable all over the world. Problem #2 solved.
Finding a Solution to Unify or Standardize Time Zones √
There is no way to standardize all the different time zones. The 24 official time zones are & always will be necessary. The primary purpose of time zones is to specifically alter time every 15 degrees longitudinally & to maintain a deliberate & discrete time difference between the country zones. And the whole purpose of Erthbeet Universal World Time is not to replace standard time zones, but to exist above them all as the one global time zone that calculates & converts between them easily for all end users. Using Erthbeet Time, no-one has to consider or even see any time zone reference anymore, nor do they need to use any cumbersome time zone conversion calculators. In this way, the Erthbeet Global Time Zone has found a very good way of negating time zone confusion & unifying time zones by tokenizing time. Problem #3 solved.
Finding a Solution to Negate Varying Daylight Savings Time Offsets √
Daylight Savings Time (DST) is the most controversial time innovation since time cartography began. Commercially, it remains debatable whether DST saves millions of dollars globally. Socially & domestically, DST has improved everyone’s lives by providing more daylight time for family, sport, recreation & leisure. Unifying time zones is one thing, but to then have to allow for varying DST status, as well the troublesome DST transitional hour problem, is another complication. Daylight Savings has always been sporadic & is determined by each government. There is no global rule or specification for when DST starts or stops for any country, nor for the daily hourly offset of DST for any country. Fortunately, most countries are DST-regular with an established DST schedule. With the modern internet & browsers, DST information is easily available and Erthbeet Universal World Time factors-in DST between all countries during time zone conversion.
However, governments sometimes internally alter their daylight savings offset for a particular year, or even for a limited period of a year. They may do this to accommodate either a bad or good year agriculturally or when freak weather patterns require the overall time infrastructure of their internal commerce to operate slightly differently to their standard DST offset. Other reasons may be to accommodate the hosting of a special event such the Olympic Games or even for an important single event that may attract many international visitors for a short period.
In time, Erthbeet will attempt to invite early advice from governments of any customized or sudden DST changes, that will not manifest in operating system libraries. This will allow Erthbeet to factor-in the temporary DST offset & expected DST duration parameters in anticipation prior to the change. By seeking the co-operation of governments regarding unscheduled DST changes, the Erthbeet Global Time zone (EBT) can reliably inter-operate & convert time between all official time zones, as well as compensate for the occasional dynamic DST schedules. Problem #4 solved!
Universal World Time
We’ve obviously come a long way since the start of time zones & Daylight Savings. And how appropriate that the unification of a global time system has arrived right on the 100 year anniversary of Daylight Savings Time! The conceptual solution developed by Erthbeet for Universal World Time has been to tokenize time. The time token makes the solution effective, because the time token has been made to be as short as possible, as well as web-linkable. While these innovations alone provide a great Universal Time solution, it is the back-ground service (ETZI) that interactively calculates local time, that clearly establishes Erthbeet Time as the final solution.
