BookCrossing
BookCrossing or BC, is a website, whose idea is to release books "into the wild" and to be found afterwards by a stranger. It is like an "adventure for books" and their new readers. If someone decides to release a book via BookCrossing, it has to get a BCID - a BookCrossing id number first so it can be tracked. The person who finds the book is then requested to log onto the BookCrossing website and complete a journal, then pass the book on.
History
Ron Hornbaker got the idea in March, 2001. The website was launched around 4 weeks later, on April 17 2001. As of May 2004, it has developed into a small movement with around 249,000 members worldwide and 1,000,000 books registered.
Process
After registering the books on the internet and attaching a print-out bookplate with the registration number and some informations about B.C., the releaser may follow his books on their trip and see what others think about them, if the finder reports his catch on the BC internet site (see below).
Furthering the BookCrossing idea
More sophisticated forms of BC are bookrays and bookrings: a group of people "subscribes" to a book on the internet and the book is mailed from one participant on the list to the next, often across continents.
Bookboxes function similarly; each participant, except the original sender, should however replace a specified number of books with volumes of his own of the same genre.
Related
A further, new variant of BookCrossing is CDCrossing also DiscCrossing mentioned.
Geocaching is similar system that uses the Global Positioning System and the internet to lead users to a cache of "treasures." Some BookCrossing books are placed in Geocaches.