My “Long Tail” toroid gets a booster shot with some very interesting news over on BusinessWeek. I had no clue who Tony Li was until I read this article (link), but it’s obvious that what he and his partners intend to do is partially what I envisioned when I began looking at Chris Anderson‘s curves and concluded they looked a bit too static for me. Li and company are looking like catalysts for some important changes. Even if they don’t succeed at unifying distribution as they intend, the very fact they intend to try is probably going to get some people to sit upright and take notice. That idea isn’t going away now.

To get caught up on how Mr. Li fits into the toroid concept, you can read my initial “Long Tail” post here. Then read about (and see) some things in an interview with Second Life’s embedded reporter, Hamlet Linden, over on his blog. And maybe take a peek at a quick follow-up I wrote on the SL Future Salon blog (which has a nicer image I posted showing ancient to early 20th century variations of the Toroid).

The only thing missing is how real products fit into this. That’s coming.