Twitter to squeeze the wine business for charity
"ABC" refers back
to the mission. But
no bird?
For your non sequitur of the day...
In an attempt to boost literacy rates around the world, Twitter has launched a wine label with San Francisco-based winery Crushpad.
The label is dubbed Fledgling Wine. In addition to its Web site, the self-described "social winemaking venture" has a Twitter page too that just kicked in minutes ago.
"As a company that's only one percent into its journey, we're always thinking about our long term impact on the world," Twitter co-founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone wrote on Fledgling Wine's home page. "The Fledgling Initiative embodies two things that are at the core of Twitter's mission: providing access to information and highlighting the power of open communication to bring about positive change."
For now, Fledgling Wine is available only as a pre-order--pinot noir or chardonnay. The wine will be bottled in August 2010. In the meantime, anyone interested in buying Twitter's 750ml bottles of wine can pay $20. According to Stone and Williams, $5 from the proceeds "will be donated to Room to Read, a transformational non-profit that brings books, libraries and ultimately literacy to people in the poorest areas around the world." The remaining $15 will be used for production costs.
Twitter's co-founders said they believe Fledgling Wine will help Twitter as well. They reason that "if you can't read, you can't Tweet!"
The news was first reported by San Francisco Weekly.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
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