LANGUAGE SUBTAG MODIFICATION - GB

[Debbie Garside]

> Do people view this operation as a kind of "splitting" of GB into GB,
> GG, IM and JE? Or do people generally think of this as the addition of
> GG, IM and JE?

This is the question I am attempting to address with ISO.  Personally I view
it as a split, in which case the code GB should be annotated to reflect this
split. In reality, what has happened is that the Newsletter deleted all
reference to the Channel Islands and Isle of Man from the GB tag instead of
annotating to say that as of 03/29/06 GG JE and IM should be used for...
etc.  which would IMHO give the correct historical information.

> If many think of this as a split, and an organization or
> individual wanted to follow these splits over time, would they have to
> go to ISO (or subscribe to their newsletter)? 

This is the problem that I am trying to address with the "tools" available
within the registry. Ideally I would like to add a comment saying "as of
03/29/06 GB no longer includes the Channel Islands and Isle of Man see GG JE
IM".  This would, in my view, suffice.  But I don't think, having spoken to
Doug, that the registry is really designed to do this.  I think he is right
but I also think it is easier to have something updated or annotated within
the registry than it is to get the ISO cogs moving.

> It would be nice if people
> didn't have to go to ISO, since that is the very organization that we
> have said is too unstable for our purposes.

Being quite active within ISO I don't think of it as being unstable there
are a great many people doing a lot of good work, not least the ISO Convenor
for ISO 3166.  The problem is liaison... another thing I have tried to
address on this list... :-)

Best regards

Debbie Garside
Editor ISO CD 639-6

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no [mailto:ietf-languages-
> bounces at alvestrand.no] On Behalf Of Erik van der Poel
> Sent: 31 March 2006 17:53
> To: Doug Ewell
> Cc: ietf-languages at iana.org
> Subject: Re: LANGUAGE SUBTAG MODIFICATION - GB
> 
> Do people view this operation as a kind of "splitting" of GB into GB,
> GG, IM and JE? Or do people generally think of this as the addition of
> GG, IM and JE? If many think of this as a split, and an organization or
> individual wanted to follow these splits over time, would they have to
> go to ISO (or subscribe to their newsletter)? It would be nice if people
> didn't have to go to ISO, since that is the very organization that we
> have said is too unstable for our purposes.
> 
> Erik
> 
> Doug Ewell wrote:
> > In case there is any confusion about what the proposed change is:
> >
> > It is a request to add a "Comments" field to the existing region subtag
> > record for GB.  No other addition or change is proposed here.
> >
> > The existing record looks like this:
> >
> > Type: region
> > Subtag: GB
> > Description: United Kingdom
> > Added: 2005-10-16
> >
> > The record would be changed to look like this:
> >
> > Type: region
> > Subtag: GB
> > Description: United Kingdom
> > Comments: see also GG, IM, JE
> > Added: 2005-10-16
> >
> > Note that the Added date is not changed (as of course it cannot be).
> >
> > I should also state that, although I ghost-wrote the proposal for Debbie
> > to help with the mechanics, I'm fairly neutral on whether it should be
> > approved or not.  To me the annotation is completely harmless, but
> > probably not essential in order to use the registry.  We should keep in
> > mind that the registry is not a general-purpose reference to countries
> > and their dependencies; although this one request does not go nearly
> > that far, we need to be careful not to let such annotations get out of
> > hand.
> >
> > --
> > Doug Ewell
> > Fullerton, California, USA
> > http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ietf-languages mailing list
> > Ietf-languages at alvestrand.no
> > http://www.alvestrand.no/mailman/listinfo/ietf-languages
> 
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