The alternative would be for everyone to use something like UTC, which means that while their relationship to the sun changes depending on location, the actual value is the same everywhere. I find this especially useful when scheduling online meetings with participants from many countries.

Yes, that's a cool way to do it and somewhat natural if you're a server person; but perhaps mentally challenging for a lot of people.

Remember Swatch Internet Time[1]?

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch_Internet_Time

I wish this would catch on again. Swatch Internet Time was a pre-Twitter invention, and the live global connection to one another was weaker than it is now. I'd love to see it supported as a timestamp in forum software, Twitter clients, etc.

That's a bit like my time system I've been pushing.

http://kybernetikos.com/2012/11/26/modern-times-a-new-clock/

or just the clock

http://kybernetikos.github.io/UIT/

You need to share your location so that it knows how to rotate the numbers on the face and how to draw the sunrise/sunset times on the dial.

Don't forget that UTC has leap seconds, too. This may not cause problems for trains, but it does for servers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8839458

TAI is like UTC but without leap seconds.

Right, but if you only use UTC then you can't tell when it's appropriate to call people or schedule meeting in various parts of the world. ("OK, this person is in Hong Kong and I want to schedule the meeting at 11:00 UTC. What time does the sun rise in Hong Kong?")

It seems like this is no different than the current situation. Today, you look up what time it is in Hong Kong. In UTC world, you look up what hours are business hours in Hong Kong.

Yeah. China has one time-zone, but is wide enough for five, and they already treat time like this.

The last week has been stupid, with UK and Europe already switching back to standard time with the US lagging on DST.

UTC Now! (Sent at 16:16 UTC)

That's exactly my point. userbinator suggested that scheduling things would be easier if everyone used UTC. I'm saying this wouldn't actually improve anything, because you'd still have to check a local quantity (business hours, local time, or whatever) for each person.

It is really. 'Business hours' isn't scientifically defined. If I say to Google, 'time in Melbourne', I'll see it's 3.11AM. And if I need to know what time it is in three of my offices, I can save those cities in my clock and swipe between them at any time.

UTC would make some things easier and some things harder. I think it would make reliably scheduling meetings easier.

Suppose you want to schedule a phone call for two weeks from now with your colleague in Melbourne. That's currently kind of challenging. It's fairly easy to accidentally agree to an inconsistent time. What if that two weeks straddles a DST change in one country, but not the other?

In UTC world, you agree to a single time, and there's no confusion. To pick an appropriate time, just look up the range of business hours in Melbohrne, and intersect those hours with the business hours wherever you are.

I don't really see how your google or clock app examples are compelling. Just google "business hours in Melbourne", and then save those in an app or wherever if you think you'll want that information again soon.

    > I can save those cities in my clock and swipe between them at any time.

If everyone used UTC, you could have just one clock, and turn it into a (possibly overlapping) pie chart - a different colour for each of your office's (approximate) business hours.