[LEAPSECS] it's WP7A week in Geneva

[Steve Allen]

On Tue 2009-09-08T18:39:31 -0700, Steve Allen hath writ:

> The WP7A is meeting in Geneva this week.

>

> There are two documents about UTC on their table as seen here

> http://www.itu.int/md/R07-WP7A-C/en

> one from People's Republic of China,

> and another from BIPM (which, curiously, is not about question 236/7)


In response to several notes, yes, these are protected, so the only
broadly visible aspects are the authors and titles.  It seems to me
that the ITU-R operates in a sort of 19th century diplomatic mode.

I do find this annoying by comparison to the internet IETF/IESG/RFC
model of standards development (in particular because the resulting
recommendations are also under lock and key even though that
interferes with the expectation that they will be broadly and
correctly implemented in software and hardware systems) but I
understand that it is their perogative to operate in this mode.

In the US any draft contributions must be reviewed publicly, so those
drafts can be openly seen, but even to find out about their
availability for review means tracking a byzantine system.  I suppose
that other countries also require review that might make the drafts
visible, but following the ever-evolving bureaucratic structures
is beyond me.

--
Steve Allen                 <sla at ucolick.org>                WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory        Natural Sciences II, Room 165    Lat  +36.99855
University of California    Voice: +1 831 459 3046           Lng -122.06015
Santa Cruz, CA 95064        http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/     Hgt +250 m