Daylight saving time changes in Palestine, with short notice and different from Israel

Reports today via the Palestine News Network (arabic.pnn.ps) reported that daylight saving time in Palestine will begin on March 26, 2009, and end around September 27.

Ever see the movie Groundhog Day?  Well, I feel like I’m re-living a past event.

I learned that Palestinian officials have decided to begin daylight saving time on Thursday, March 26, 2009, and expects to maintain DST until September 27, 2009 as noted here (in Arabic).

I learned a couple of years ago (and noted here) that the period of DST in Palestine often differs from Israel, the time of change is different each year, and provided with short notice.

As noted in a prior post, our product teams are moving to a regular rhythm to update their products and services to reflect these time changes. (For each update release, Microsoft accepts change requests up to a few months prior to the release date.)

We’ve also updated our page on Microsoft’s Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests, providing recommendations in order to achieve more seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies. We suggest that governments should provide the following when considering changing DST or making adjustments to time zones:

1. Ample advance notice (1 year or more) of the planned change.
2. Official published confirmation of planned changes to DST or time zones.
3. Concentrated efforts on promoting the change to the affected citizens.

Important note for governments: Let me note that in support of these types of changes, we provide guidance and Microsoft’s Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests. It’s important for countries and territories to work towards seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies, providing ample advance notice (of a year or more) with published confirmation of planned changes. In addition, we suggest that entities considering the changes consider implementing changes at the next clock tick after 01:59:59 rather than at 00:00:00. Making the change at midnight can impact daily systems, such as back ups, data pulls or other automated tasks.

Thanks to several folks who forwarded this information including Alexander Krivenyshev who maintains the private http://www.worldtimezone.com site.

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST, Palestine, Israel

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This page is available also via http://tinyurl.com/dstz032609