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Britain's Greenwich Royal Observatory to be Internet Timekeeper

A report in today's London Times said that the Royal Observatory - already the official keeper of the world's time, expressed as Greenwich Mean Time, said that UK Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce the plans as part of the run-up to the Millennium celebrations in London this week.

Under the Greenwich Electronic Time (GeT) project, the Royal Observatory will provide organizations around the world with special Internet access software that will allow them to synchronize their master server clocks with GeT.

Newsbytes notes that GMT, which is also known as Zulu time in certain parts of the world, has been the standard measure of world time since the 1880s.

The London Times says that plans call for GeT to also be used as an official measure of time for e-mail and business transactions.

The paper quotes Nick Raynsford, the MP (Member of Parliament) for Greenwich, as saying that the world already tells its time from the Observatory and is therefore "entirely logical that, as technology evolves, that the measurement of time should be from the same place."

"It's a logical progression from the existing position," he said.

The Times also reported that several organizations have been involved in the GeT project for some time. These include Forrester Research and the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), a pan-European retail body whose members include IBM, Microsoft and Marks & Spencer.

Other companies said to be adding their weight to the GeT project include British Telecom, DHL, Interflora and Timex.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, www.newsbytes.com.

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