I've been a little surprised at the near total lack of response to Sam's "Accuracy and Precision in dates"[1], so I'll bring it up again. Here's the executive summary of my response[2]:
Questions:
1) What are we trying to accomplish with dates in Atom?
2) What Date Construct definition(s) would maximize our ability to accomplish that?
Possible answers: To #1: A) Enable a desirable sort order B) Provide a meaningful display date