I came upon your site after seeking information about the "transforum" designation on an ICANN reserved-names site. It seems, as you report, that your site is changing into a weblog in a way, and I salute you on the length of your commitment both to the medium and to your personal messages in that medium. Your site is a valuable form of personal expression and a fine opportunity for interaction between yourself and other people.

I am a professor in the United States who is interested in providing a website so that people interested in transportation projects in their local communities, or for that matter, in larger settings, can have an opportunity to share their views about proposed infrastructure investments/changes in an open way, and learn about the views of others on the same subject. There is a legal requirement in the United States that significant transportation projects that receive federal funding be subjected to public commentary, but that commentary typically occurs under wraps, so I thought that an independent website forum would provide a good kind of transparency in the process of commenting on proposed transportation decisions that would fulfill the basic intent of getting public input on decisions that would affect the public, and adjusting such decisions in ways that the public might find on balance more desirable.

The name "transforum" seemed appropriate as the name for this endeavor, on the logic that a forum for the discussion of public decisions about transportation infrastructure and law could radically improve the quality of official decisions about those topics.

I elected just to write to you on your website about this rather than go through the bureaucratic hoops of inquiring about your potential willingness to assign your web domain names to this potentially important non-profit, public-interest endeavor.

I would be happy to start a conversation with you about this off the web or on. My e-mail is oedel_dg@mercer.edu. Thank you in advance for even considering a potential name change for your weblog.

Dave Oedel
Professor of Law
Mercer University Law School
Macon, Georgia 31207