Foursquare does not exist in a world without values.

Om Malik has a great snapshot on the potential of Foursquare (or a similar service) to build a 'open' platform that combines retail points of presence, the notion of check-ins, developer APIs, smartphones, coupons and advertising. In short, this could remake local advertising -- something even Google hasn't been able to crack:

When I look at Foursquare and other such companies, I finally see a solution to the conundrum around local advertising. Everyone from Yahoo to Google has viewed local advertising (long the preserve of newspapers and yellow pages) with lustful eyes, with little or no success.

Over the past decade or so, I’ve watched numerous ill-fated attempts made to build media companies in order to cash-in on local advertising. Unless you’re in a big city like New York or Chicago or Houston, the local media market isn’t big enough to be a viable business proposition. Now imagine you had a platform big enough to encompass a lot of locations, married to an e-commerce platform and an army of local sales people: You can start to see the possibilities. The operative phrase here is “a platform that’s big enough...

Good stuff. That's a long road ahead, and Foursquare needs to get developers on board, their API must shine, user habits must continue to embrace the 'check-in', hundreds of thousands of retail outlets must sign up. All the big details and about a million little ones. Still, it's a solid vision and is viable. But I think it misses out on a critical element that without it, dooms this notion to fail:

Values

Yes, values. As in, I don't want to buy products made in China, for example (iPhone notwithstanding *cough*). Nor do I want to buy meat that contains antibiotics, for example. There's lots and lots of values that you and I and everyone else has. How are these reflected in Foursquare and other check-in apps?

And I think this is a very important point. For one thing, while I'm all for checking in to a spot to let family and friends know, I don't want to check-in to a place of business -- even if my smartphone/app handles this automatically -- because I probably don't want them to track me. More importantly, I WANT THE BEST DAMN PRICE PERIOD. I can get on my smartphone, from anywhere, including from inside a Best Buy, and check Amazon, check Tiger Direct, scan a barcode and instantly find the best price. Why on earth would some business tell me I have to *work*, to do some silly check-in and be a loyal user before they give me the best price? That's a service destined for the dust heap.

But what would work is a 'values' component. Then I would check in. Every time. Then I would tell the world I am at Clothing Store X. If I could let the world know, instantly, seamlessly, that I am here because it's a *good* price, not a deal, and they do not offer clothes made in sweatshops, say, I'd be more than happy to check in and even encourage others to join me right now. We could become a loyal flashmob!

Think about it: Ours is a world where anyone can get anything at anytime from anybody at anyplace. That is a zero sum game for business. And, ultimately, for buyers. But a business that stands for something -- that I care deeply about -- that promotes its values, that embeds its values into each point of presence, then you have something. Maybe by just checking in, the retailer, say an Apple store, will naturally give me the best price, always, but in addition, will automatically send $1 to the 'green tech' charity I have integrated with my Foursquare profile. Businesses could list their values, prices and the category of charities or the good deeds that they enable within their Foursquare settings.

Values matter. I believe that in business they will increasingly matter more and more. But if it's faux loyalty and silly promotions for coupons I shouldn't require, I have no use for it.