New York, N.Y., Dec. 21, 2012 –Technology startup lettrs (lettrs.com) today announced the launch of its innovative “cloud letter” platform that revives and reinvents the concept of personal letters by making them social … again.
Fusing social media technologies and cloud computing with old-fashioned letter writing, lettrs revives an art form by making letters accessible across a range of mobile and social platforms.
lettrs
Through the lettrs platform, users can:
• Create and deliver letters via the cloud as a personal “post office”
• Upload and preserve handwritten personal letters in a user’s “shoebox”
• Display meaningful letters publicly by displaying them on a user’s virtual “fridge”
• Explore thousands of personal and noteworthy letters, and share them socially via Facebook and Twitter.
• Send open public letters or petitions for supporting cause, person, or brands
Via the lettrs cloud architecture, users can distribute a digital letter anywhere in the world with an Internet browser and, shortly, from a lettrs mobile app. The platform only requires a user to enter one specific identifier, such as an email address, Facebook profile or Twitter handle. The letters are managed in the cloud for each user to read, preserve, or share. A digital-to-paper and paper-to-digital preservation loop will be offered in 2013.
Established in 2012 by technology entrepreneur Drew Bartkiewicz, and in beta until now, lettrs aims to become the platform for all things letters and help spark a movement towards more meaningful communications. The lettrs platform already displays letters from four different centuries and has a user base writing new letters across more than 64 countries. It includes interesting personal letters and noteworthy letters from celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and Beyoncé, and former presidents such as Eisenhower.
Anyone who loves to write letters, educational institutions and social media users, among others, will find lettrs a more thoughtful communication platform for returning us to the days of more personal correspondence.
“Forty billion paper letters are estimated to be stored in U.S. households and are at risk of being lost forever as part of our cultural, historical, and literary heritage,” said
Bartkiewicz, who served in the Gulf War and knows firsthand the importance of personal letters for an active duty serviceman. Some of his treasured letters from that time can be viewed at: www.lettrs.com/drew.
“With lettrs, we are harnessing the convenience of social media and the efficiencies of cloud computing to help us slow down, to rediscover the importance, meaning and permanence of the letter for the digital age,” said Bartkiewicz.
“We can use this unique technology to bring letters back for humanity, and perhaps in the process spark a new generation of letter writing,” said Robin Carey, CEO of Social Media Today. “Absent until now, lettrs brings the social grace of letter writing into social media.”
“The lettrs site emphasizes the single most important ingredients in a great letter – the thought and time that went into writing or typing it,” said Bartkiewicz. In fact, he said, lettrs will always be thankfully absent a “reply” button. “We just want people to think about what they write and enjoy the letters they read.”
About lettrs
lettrs organizes the world’s personal letters in the cloud. It also offers a “cloud letter” platform, an innovative way to create and distribute web letters. Needing only one specific identifier of an individual (such as an email address, Facebook profile or Twitter handle), a person can send a letter anywhere in the world, all from an Internet browser and soon from a lettrs mobile app. lettrs is a meaningful communications platform for education, publishing, consumer brands and anyone who loves to write letters. For more information, visit lettrs.com.
