Sam Odio, a serial entrepreneur who previously sold his photo startup Divvyshot to Facebook, has manipulated Jonathan Stark’s now-famous communal Starbucks Card to transfer $625 of the balance to his own Starbucks Card.
In a blog post entitled, “How to use Jonathan’s card to buy yourself an iPad,” Odio describes the exploit and makes a case for himself as a modern day Robin Hood — taking the money donated by others for coffee purchases and donating it to charity instead.
Stark, however, isn’t buying it. “It’s obviously not in the spirt of the experiment,” Stark tells Mashable of Odio’s card exploit. “It’s not what the money was put there for. The point of this is to be wide open and trusting, and to expect the best of people. If [Odio] thinks this is good, and that people will see it that way, it’s up to him to decide.”
Stark launched Jonathan’s Card on July 14 as a social adaption of the “take a penny, leave a penny” concept. More than 500 people had donated a total of $8,700 as of Wednesday.
Odio, who describes Stark’s social media experiment as “yuppies buying yuppies coffee,” created a script — which he’s also made publicly available via Github — that alerts him whenever the card balance reaches a certain level.
“For the last week I (and others) have been using this script to transfer donated money off Jonathan’s card and onto our own Starbucks gift cards. It’s easy: just head to your local Starbucks, pop open your computer, run this script, and when the music plays, cash in,” Odio writes.
Now, Odio is selling the $625 Starbucks Card on eBay with the reported intention of donating the proceeds to Save The Children.
Stark says that he’s aware of the script and has been alerted that others are taking similar actions. But, he doesn’t believe it’s his place to shut down the experiment or stop publicizing the card’s balance. “There’s nothing I can do,” he says.
“I believe that people get what they deserve, good or bad,” Stark concludes.
With the script readily available to all, the feel-good experiment, which Stark had hoped would bring out the best in people, may start to bring out the worst in some.
Odio’s site has been up and down following an influx of traffic after he shared the blog post on Hacker News. The full text of his post is included below.
Jonathan Stark recently released his Starbucks card to the public as a social experiment. It was quickly picked up by CNN, Time, and many others. For those of you who are living under a rock, here’s what is going on: anyone can donate to the card and anyone is welcome to use the card. Just walk up to a Starbucks counter and show them this image.
Jonathan purportedly did this as a “social experiment.” Would there be a balance on the card? Would anyone care? Jonathan himself has put over $100 on the card to get things started. Some have argued in disbelief that this must be some sort of Starbucks viral campaign, though Jonathan denies it.
Since I don’t find the idea of yuppies buying yuppies coffees very interesting I decided to mix things up a bit. I coded up a script that would alert me whenever the card balance reached a certain threshold. And here’s the twist: for the last week I (and others) have been using this script to transfer donated money off Jonathan’s card and onto our own Starbucks gift cards. It’s easy: just head to your local starbucks, pop open your computer, run this script, and when the music plays, cash in.
Through this strategy I’ve personally netted $625 by spending less than 5 hours at Starbucks. That’s enough for an iPad.
I’m not getting an iPad, though. Instead I’m selling the card on eBay and donating the proceeds to Save The Children. Assuming the card sells for face value I’ll have fed 20 children for a month. So here’s your social experiment Jonathan: will people bid up the price of the card to face value (or possibly exceed it)? Or am I alone in thinking that helping a stranger find their next caffeine fix is not what we should be worried about in today’s world?
Update: Odio’s original listing was removed by eBay. “Bummer, eBay removed the listing since it exceeds the value of one starbucks card: http://cl.ly/1i2v192U0i333I1c1A2Q. I’ll be reposting as two,” Odio tweeted.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Thomas Hawk
More About: Jonathan's Card, social media, starbucks, trendingFor more Social Media coverage:Follow Mashable Social Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Social Media channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:56:04 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/5Zcj0X6CfgY/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/12/jonathans-card-hacked-starbucks/#comments
In a blog post entitled, “How to use Jonathan’s card to buy yourself an iPad,” Odio describes the exploit and makes a case for himself as a modern day Robin Hood — taking the money donated by others for coffee purchases and donating it to charity instead.
Stark, however, isn’t buying it. “It’s obviously not in the spirt of the experiment,” Stark tells Mashable of Odio’s card exploit. “It’s not what the money was put there for. The point of this is to be wide open and trusting, and to expect the best of people. If [Odio] thinks this is good, and that people will see it that way, it’s up to him to decide.”
Stark launched Jonathan’s Card on July 14 as a social adaption of the “take a penny, leave a penny” concept. More than 500 people had donated a total of $8,700 as of Wednesday.
Odio, who describes Stark’s social media experiment as “yuppies buying yuppies coffee,” created a script — which he’s also made publicly available via Github — that alerts him whenever the card balance reaches a certain level.
“For the last week I (and others) have been using this script to transfer donated money off Jonathan’s card and onto our own Starbucks gift cards. It’s easy: just head to your local Starbucks, pop open your computer, run this script, and when the music plays, cash in,” Odio writes.
Now, Odio is selling the $625 Starbucks Card on eBay with the reported intention of donating the proceeds to Save The Children.
Stark says that he’s aware of the script and has been alerted that others are taking similar actions. But, he doesn’t believe it’s his place to shut down the experiment or stop publicizing the card’s balance. “There’s nothing I can do,” he says.
“I believe that people get what they deserve, good or bad,” Stark concludes.
With the script readily available to all, the feel-good experiment, which Stark had hoped would bring out the best in people, may start to bring out the worst in some.
Odio’s site has been up and down following an influx of traffic after he shared the blog post on Hacker News. The full text of his post is included below.
Jonathan Stark recently released his Starbucks card to the public as a social experiment. It was quickly picked up by CNN, Time, and many others. For those of you who are living under a rock, here’s what is going on: anyone can donate to the card and anyone is welcome to use the card. Just walk up to a Starbucks counter and show them this image.
Jonathan purportedly did this as a “social experiment.” Would there be a balance on the card? Would anyone care? Jonathan himself has put over $100 on the card to get things started. Some have argued in disbelief that this must be some sort of Starbucks viral campaign, though Jonathan denies it.
Since I don’t find the idea of yuppies buying yuppies coffees very interesting I decided to mix things up a bit. I coded up a script that would alert me whenever the card balance reached a certain threshold. And here’s the twist: for the last week I (and others) have been using this script to transfer donated money off Jonathan’s card and onto our own Starbucks gift cards. It’s easy: just head to your local starbucks, pop open your computer, run this script, and when the music plays, cash in.
Through this strategy I’ve personally netted $625 by spending less than 5 hours at Starbucks. That’s enough for an iPad.
I’m not getting an iPad, though. Instead I’m selling the card on eBay and donating the proceeds to Save The Children. Assuming the card sells for face value I’ll have fed 20 children for a month. So here’s your social experiment Jonathan: will people bid up the price of the card to face value (or possibly exceed it)? Or am I alone in thinking that helping a stranger find their next caffeine fix is not what we should be worried about in today’s world?
Update: Odio’s original listing was removed by eBay. “Bummer, eBay removed the listing since it exceeds the value of one starbucks card: http://cl.ly/1i2v192U0i333I1c1A2Q. I’ll be reposting as two,” Odio tweeted.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Thomas Hawk
More About: Jonathan's Card, social media, starbucks, trendingFor more Social Media coverage:Follow Mashable Social Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Social Media channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:56:04 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/5Zcj0X6CfgY/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/12/jonathans-card-hacked-starbucks/#comments
