Social sharing: that is the concept mobile apps innovator Jonathan Stark said he is demonstrating with his "Jonathan's Card," a free download that is good for a free coffee at Starbucks.

No strings attached.

And this is cascading across the Internet today.

To participate, Stark gives the lowdown: "You can download this picture of my Starbucks card to your phone and buy coffee at Starbucks with it. Seriously. My card gets charged, you don't." 

Want to repay a kindness? Stark also provided the how-to for adding value to his card, with a visit to the Starbucks' site.

Before showing the card on a mobile phone to pay for a coffee, Stark suggested users visit his Twitter stream, where current balance is shown: $100 at 1.51 pm EDT, by the way. 

Puzzled about the point of this? The experiment is garnering huge press coverage, mainly in tech publications today, but by tomorrow this will be in many mainstream media. 

Stark said: "Based on the similarity to the 'take a penny, leave a penny' trays at convenience stores in the U.S., I've adopted a similar 'get a coffee, give a coffee' terminology for Jonathan's Card."

Importantly, too, this also is an experiment in mobile purchasing where customers, literally, have nothing to lose because they are using Stark's card to satiate their caffeine jones.

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