There\’s a slow erosion of coverage for local news and even local gossip these days. On one hand, the big news sources can\’t possibly provide coverage for every single local location so they have become consolidators of nationwide or international news which works very well. On the other hand, the local news providers have seen a lot of their revenue disappear (think local papers) and they are scaling back the coverage they provide for local news. A big function of these local news providers is to filter and more importantly, vet information that they come across to check facts, validity, etc of what they turn around and provide to the public. So how does the Zipper address the truthfulness of what is provided in the system. Glad you ask and we feel, given the constraints of the too big to cover and too small to cover issues above, the community policed option of the Zipper is the only real answer to great and extensive local news coverage.

Let\’s say you come across a post in the Zipper that you know is incorrect. Maybe you\’re working on a political campaign and you see a post showing that your candidate accepted contributions from a certain questionable source. You know (since you\’re in charge of campaign contributions) that this is not the case. It\’s not uncommon with campaigns, even before the age of the internet and hyper communication, for such misleading stories to be put out there in the public but the internet does speed up the process and potential damage from such stories. Just to make sure, you confirm with your candidate to make sure there was no secret, back door deal with the source in question and the answer is a resounding \”No\”. Okay. So what do you do now?

There are two built-in mechanisms in the Zipper to address incorrect information very quickly. The first is the Thumbs. Next to any Zip post or re-zip, you will see a thumb\’s up on the left and a thumb\’s down on the right with a number next to each. This is your quick fire way to say that a Zip is incorrect, inappropriate, solicitation, boring, or just plain annoying. Too many of these thumb\’s downs and the message will start to drop off the radar. However, you\’re not the only vote (or voter) in town and if a lot of people are confirming it (the Thumb\’s Up), it\’s going to stay around and get traction. The more people that vote, the more sure you can be of the Thumbs as a rough litmus test for accuracy of a given Zip local news or local gossip post. There\’s another step which goes even further. The Rezip.

If you click on an actual message, you\’ll bring up the full message and the Rezips or responses to the original message. This is important since other people may have corroborating or contradictory information. You would fall into the second camp and post a Zip with a solid statement that the source did not provide funding and you establish your position in the campaign to validate your comment. You can comment in the rezip and even create a new Zip to establish your train of thought. In the battle of ideas and opinions, the Zipper is the ultimate tool to level the playing field and get to the truth surrounding all local news and local gossip items in real time. Keep in mind that just because the Zip is online, it doesn\’t preclude you from local, State, and Federal laws surrounding slander, libel, and fraud. Play by the rules and we can all enjoy the benefits of this theatre of ideas.

Dennis Jarvis writes extensively about local news and local gossip smart phone apps.