BookCrossing
BookCrossing or BC, is a website, the idea is to release books into the "wild" to be found by other people, often strangers. The analogy is to the ornithological practice of ringing birds to track their movements.
It is somewhat like an adventure for books and their new readers. If someone decides to release a book via BookCrossing, the book has to be registered in order to get a BCID - a BookCrossing ID number first so it can be tracked. The person who finds or catches the book is then requested to log onto the BookCrossing website and complete a journal, and then pass on the book.
Membership is free and donations received will go towards the maintenance of the servers and continue the exile of pop-up ads on the website. Members who order Bookcrossing items through the supply store or BC Newsstand will receive wings on the sides of their screennames and additional benefits like fewer advertisements displayed and having access to the book registration database.
History
Ron Hornbaker conceived the idea in March, 2001 (see below). The website was launched around 4 weeks later, on April 17 2001. As of September 6, 2004, it has developed into a global movement with around 287,828 members worldwide and 1,378,513 books registered.
Process
After registering the books on the website and attaching a print-out bookplate with the registration number and information about BookCrossing, the releaser may follow his or her books on their trip in the "wild" and read the finder's opinions or comments, if the person reports his or her catch on the BookCrossing website (see below).
Furthering the BookCrossing idea
More sophisticated forms of BookCrossing 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. The only difference is that books in bookrings will return to the original owner while books in bookrays do not. Instead, the last person on the list to receive the book gets a choice whether to release it or to organise another bookring or bookray.
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.
BookCrossing members (called BookCrossers) can access forums from the website, subscribe to an email list, and attend local meetups.
Official BookCrossing Zones, which are sometimes called OBCZs or OBZs are located in places like Starbucks coffee shops, restaurants or other shops where accessible to the public. These OBCZs refer to bookshelves placed there so that BookCrossers could catch or release books.
Related
A further, new variant of BookCrossing is CDCrossing or DiscCrossing.
Another concept is BookRelay. Through this, members send books that they've read to another person who requested it and they request another book that they would like to read. Just like a relay, books switch owners through the mail and not by releasing.
PhotoTag is the original idea which BookCrossing is based on. The difference is that PhotoTag uses disposable cameras and passed on to friends and strangers and then returned to the original releaser when the film is used up. The photos are then uploaded to the PhotoTag website.
Geocaching is a similar system that uses Global Positioning System and the internet to lead users to a cache of "treasures". Some members intergrate the 2 systems and BookCrossing books are placed in Geocaches.
Currency bill tracking is a similar system that tracks the movement of individual bills - a dollar bill or a five euro note, for example - according to their serial number.
