ICCF 2015-014: Coordinated Universal Time for Server
Austin Lockwood, ICCF Services Director
Coordinated Universal Time for Server
Proposal
From 27 March 2016, the ICCF webserver will use Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) as the basis of its time calculations, instead of its local system time.
Rationale
Currently the server uses its local system time as the basis for time calculations; however, the physical location of the server should not be important from the player or official perspective.
If it becomes necessary to move the server, then there could be a change in system time of several hours (for example if the server was moved from its present location in Manchester, England, to the west coast of the United States, which is not inconceivable, all clocks would gain eight hours – a move to the East, for example to Australia or New Zealand, could be catastrophic!).
Most non tropical countries use some form of daylight saving time, in the United Kingdom, where the server is currently hosted, the clocks are advanced one hour in March and set back an hour in October; players from all over the world are expected to follow this convention, which is otherwise meaningless to them.
Universal Coordinated Time is unvarying, a standard global convention, and understandable to all.
Other Comments/Considerations
The current server playing rules offer Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as an alternative to the server’s local system time; GMT is an older standard which has now been replaced by UTC.
As the server is currently hosted in the United Kingdom, local time will be the same as UTC from 25th October 2015 to 27th March 2016. I propose that we remain on UTC after this date and for the indefinite future.
There will be some development costs because the server is currently programmed to use local time; an estimate of this cost will be presented in the Service Director’s report in advance of Congress.
Relevent Documentation
Server Playing Rules 6c, replace:
The basis for ICCF Webserver date/time will be Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or other central time defined by the location of the server.
with
The basis for ICCF Webserver date/time will be Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Voting Summary
- A vote of Yes will mean that the server time will be based on UTC from 27 March 2016.
- A vote of No will mean the server time will continue to be based on local time, and players from around the world will need to remain aware of daylight saving time arrangements for the country the server is hosted in.
- A vote of ABSTAIN is not a vote but means the vote holder has no opinion and does not wish to represent the correspondence chess players of his or her federation in this matter.
Comments by Relevant Committees, Commissions, or ICCF Officers
Eric Ruch (EB)
No comments yet
Eric Ruch (Rules)
No comments yet
Austin Lockwood
This proposal is entirely logical, there is no justification for fixing the current server time to a particular physical location, this is simply a vestigial legacy of ICCF's postal history which is no longer relevant to modern server play.
There are some financial implications; these will be estimated and included in my report to Congress, so that all voting federations will be able to weigh up the cost/benefit and decide their position well in advance of Congress.