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Look, we all love looking at the gossip mags at check
out (for the articles, or course) on what's happening in
Hollywood but every community, whether it's a
neighborhood, high school, college, or workplace has
some local gossip going on. It's even better since it's
right next door (literally). I may never meet Brad Pitt
but I definitely know Doug from down the street and
started to wonder why he was suddenly driving the red
Porche and blasting Keisha at age 50. Hmmm. What's
going on there?
There was no real way to know. Yes, local gossip's been
around since...well since there was local. It usually
passed word of mouth but isn't that a little slow in the
era of the internet? Yes is the answer. Yes. The new
Zipper app for your smart phone takes local gossip and
makes it immediately available from everyone to
everyone. We're not calling this a cure of Diabetes or
anything but it sure is fun! Let's take a look at how
the Zipper is going to bring local gossip back home and
online.
First, what is the Zipper and why does it work so well
for local gossip? The Zipper is a smart phone app (Iphone
or Android based) that allows people in a certain
geographic (that's the local part) area to exchange
information without having a prior relationship (friending,
twitter, etc). Let's face it..most of the local news
information we want to really know about has nothing to
do with our existing social network. Some stranger can
tells us more about why that truck ran off the freeway
than our friend Lisa. That's the Zipper. Now, your
relationship is with the local news or information. You
can quickly post zips or read info across different
locations and channels (essentially filters). So, what
about local gossip?
Local gossip is the juicy, fun cousin of local news.
There's no reason we shouldn't be able to find out the
goods on locals as well as our close friends in
Hollywood. How do we do that? There's one issue.
Let's say I know something juicy in my high school or
local area but I can't have my name tied to it (which is
usually the case with gossip)? How do I then post that
local gossip tidbit on the Zipper? We took care of
that. When you set up your Zipper account, you will
have a handle and avatar (picture) for standard posts.
Let's say traffic, deals, local news, etc. No problem.
When registering, you will also have a anonymous handle
solely for gossip posts. You can pick some random
picture or use the system generated zipper pic but no
one will now who you are and it's complete separate from
your legit posts. How do we know if local gossip posts
are creditable if they're anonymous?
Well, you could say the same for all gossip but we built
a system where other viewers can confirm or deny a local
gossip posts with the "Thumbs". Next to each post, is a
thumbs up and thumbs down button. If you know
something's not correct, hit the thumbs down button. If
you know that local gossip info is correct you can
thumbs up. Again, thumbs are anonymous by design. You
will start to see momentum one way or another for a
given local gossip zip and that gives a little validity
to the original message. You can also rezip or post a
response anonymously if you like with additional
information for that particular local gossip message.
If it's "hot", it will stay above the radar but
unsubstantiated or unpopular (rezips) messages will
quickly lose traction and fall away. It's a brave, new
world in the land of Local Gossip with the Zipper App.
Speaking of which, did you hear what Tina did at that
party last night?? |
