A Series of Tubes

Now this is what I call a real distribution network:

The London Book Project is a free book exchange on a massive scale. Using the London Underground as a high speed distribution network, we aim to bring real literature to London's commuters. Scrap the freesheets - read a free book instead!

Over the next two weeks we'll be distributing thousands of second hand books across the tube and we want YOU to get involved. If you see one of our books, please pick it up! Then read it and replace with any book of your choice. Let's make the tube a giant, free library! Meanwhile, browse our website to find out more about the London Book Project and some alternative reporting about the world's most diverse capital city.

(Via Boing Boing.)

The Internet? It's a Series of (You)Tubes

Is it just me, or has the entire VC industry gone utterly bonkers over Internet video? It seems that every day there's a new YouTube me-too launch on TechCrunch - with the usual "I think it's got potential" that seems to accompany every such story - and now, thanks to IP Democracy, we have a neat little table that suggests that VCs are, indeed, barking:

we take a look at the amount of venture money that has flowed into IP video start-ups over the past year and find that over $600 million has been invested in the YouTubes and Sling Medias and MobiTVs of the world since around this time last year. Our list (see table below) doesn’t even include investments for web sites or technology companies that focus a lot — but not primarily — on IP video efforts.

I realise that the Internet is a series of tubes, but as far as video is concerned, things really seem to be going down them.