Time Zones

Regarding the different customary uses of time, cultures can vary greatly. Punctuality is very important to my own culture and those cultures having close association with my own. In a global context, there are many interpretations of what might be called "on time". In Latin America you may be "on time" for an appointment by arriving 40 minutes late. To arrive precisely at the designated time you would be said to have arrived "early". Rather than appearing to have respect for the other parties time, they may interpret you to be awkwardly anxious. My concern is to deal with these kinds of conflict.

Probably, a good guide for interpreting time more uniformly between the different cultures is to take all of the cultures and divide them into three social/economic sectors:

The Third Sector, the largest sector, is founded upon Old World agrarian values. Natural time is Standard Time here. People rise with the sun and go to sleep with it. Activities are scheduled over longer spaces of time. Work must be completed by the end of a season and preparation for the next. The times of the seasons are more important than clock time. Full moon is a good time to plant and harvest. Full Moon is also a safer time for women to engage in courtship where electric lights are few. In this context people being more exposed to the natural elements may have delays due to weather such as snowstorms, excessive rainfall, drought, etc. This is by far the largest sector worldwide but it's presence is practically inconsequential on the Internet.

The Second Sector came with the Industrialization of society and the proliferation of machines. The clock became the most prominent machine to debut in the past 500 years. Time was divided into equal increments allowing the days work to be of equal length throughout the varying seasons. This sector became distributed mainly in temperate zones of the globe. The people work in factories with powered machines This would include automobiles, factories, hand power tools, sewing machines,

Basically, the more machines are proliferated and used in combinations or conglomerations (such as factories), the greater the need for organization of people and therefore greater respect for time limitations.

20th century Daylight Savings Time

The different cultures developed customs according to how many timepieces were available for a population. A timepiece cost money and in some less developed countries fewer people have watches so they are still on Natural Time. Many cities in Latin America did not get electric lighting until the 60's. Many large cities have only now installed mass transit systems that link one end of the city to another. many do not have private automobiles and so do not have as much control over their means of transporting themselves to an appointment. Therefore it is quite acceptable to arrive as much as 40 minutes late for an appointment.

http://www.hitachi-rail.com/rail_now/column/just_in_time/index.html
http://www.arcytech.org/java/clock/clock_history.html

The First Sector and smallest sector works in closed offices, organizing information with electronic machines. In this context there is a more precise understanding of the meaning of time. All of this sector has precision clocks fully distributed across the Internet.

The three sectors exist in all of the cultures to varying degrees but for purposes of organizing members of a Web community, we should consider that all (with extremely few exceptions) are in the First Sector. In Latin America you would be hard put to find an Internet user who would consider it acceptable to arrive at an online appointment 40 minutes late!

Even if you lumped all of these cultures together we would be safe to say that 60 minutes is late. The highest standards in the 20th century put punctuality to the minute. Slightly lesser standards applied to business and professional standards. It might be reasonable to wait 5 to 10 minutes for a late person.

So in the context of the Internet, I want to determine a reasonable standard for being "on time" and being "late". I would say that these terms must be fix relative to the precision with which an appointment can actually be made on the Internet and I must conclude that online appointments will have a higher standard of precision in the norm.

Every computer I use has a hours and minutes clock displayed in the lower right hand corner. Clocks are distributed equally in every part of the Internet. People in the first Sectors spend most of their day on the computer. I don't have to travel to keep an appointment. It seems that we could make appointments with greater precision.

Why people don't attend well to online appointments is because they simply don't care to. They have a ready made excuse that with random posting people can organize without appointments. I argue that random posting is limiting and hindering the organization of people. Random posting obstructs the use of temporal and ordinal forms and has almost driven proper democratic forms into extinction. They are excusing themselves from their responsibilities to community organization. Therefore, it dis-empowers people. It dis-empowers the other members and the whole community. They might be disqualified from membership in a committed Community of Practice.

Test my ability to arrange an appointment. precision need a Buddy who is motivated to be as precise as possible. I want to determine the best standard under the optimal conditions and then determine an average acceptable limit or what can be reasonably expected from the average member of a web community.

sitting at computer a click away from the site keep the appointment to the minute two minutes late is tolerable but questionable especially if habitual five minute late and you're a lollygagger

But if not, then they must be classed as a "visiting member" who might participate in the program but have no voice or vote in the business meeting of that club. As a member of their home club, they not only participate in the program but have a voice and vote in the business meeting of that club.This is just like a traditional service organization. If I join Rotary in Rochester, NY, I regularly participate in the programs and have a vote in the business meeting. When I visit another Rotary club that is not my own, on the other side of Rochester (or anywhere in the world) I am welcome as a visiting member (of Rotary Inernational via my home club membership) at a meeting and may participate in the program but have no voice or vote in the business portion of the meeting. I am a "visiting member".