Jonathan's Card Buys Starbucks Coffee With Goodwill Currency
By: Marissa Brassfield
Published: August 10, 2011

Jonathan Stark, an avid Starbucks fan, has begun a guerrilla goodwill campaign called Jonathan's Card that lets anyone buy a Starbucks coffee with his Starbucks card; he also encourages readers to anonymously refill the card for some karma points. The project is "an experiment in social sharing of physical goods using digital currency on mobile phones," writes Stark on his website, and it's even got a Twitter account that tweets the balance of the card.
TechCrunch picked up on the story this morning, calling out a blogger who alleged that Jonathan's Card was a hoax orchestrated by a shill for Starbucks. It turns out that the project is in fact genuine: Starbucks wrote TechCrunch, saying in part, "Starbucks had no knowledge of Jonathan's plans, and has no official relationship with him or the company he works for. We do think his project is interesting and we're flattered that he is using Starbucks as a part of his 'pay-it-forward' experiment and look forward to watching it develop."
What do you think about Jonathan's Card? Will you take part in the project?

Comments:
Colin Saunders
August 10, 2011

I bought a cup! Didn't refill though ...