Pocket Sherpa for iPhone has promise
PocketSherpa [itunes link] is an interesting idea for a travel app, but it should be used with caution.
When you download the free app, you'll be asked to sign up with an email address and a password. When that is done you can click on any place in the world, and have a good chance of getting a contact there you can ask questions of and get some really good local advice. I tried some out of the way places (at least for me) and found lots of people offering good information. In Bristol, U.K. for example, there were 24 people offering advice and 20 people offering to show me around.
There were contacts in Newfoundland, and in the Sudan. The developers claim 25,000 travel guides, and 30,000 experts at more than 7,000 destinations.
There is also a list of newspapers, so you can read the local news before you go, but the list is not extensive and has a North American bias.
The app supports a public Q&A list for many of the locations, so you can get a feel for where you are going without initiating the messaging function.
I'm also worried about the security of the searchers and the local guides. While you can keep your communications to just email, many of the experts are offering goods and services like driving you around. There is no way for those people to be vetted, and by the same token an unscrupulous user could do harm to one of the experts.
PocketSherpa is a really good idea, but I think there are some red flags about the creators being a broker for physical people-to-people encounters.
It's free, so take a look at it and see if it fulfills your needs, but also see if you agree that you would need to be really cautious with direct physical contact.
