Chris Messina (open-source advocate)

This article is about the open source advocate. For the actor, see Chris Messina.

Chris Messina
Messina in March 2016
Born
Christopher Reaves Messina

(1981-01-07) January 7, 1981 (age 43)
Bedford, New Hampshire, U.S.
Alma materCarnegie Mellon University
Known forInventing the hashtag
Websitehttp://chrismessina.me/

Christopher Reaves Messina (born January 7, 1981) is an American blogger, product consultant and speaker who is the inventor of the hashtag as it is currently used on social media platforms.[1][2][3] In a 2007 tweet, Messina proposed vertical/associational grouping of messages, trends, and events on Twitter by the means of hashtags.[4] The hashtag was intended to be a type of metadata tag that allowed users to apply dynamic, user-generated tagging, which made it possible for others to easily find messages with a specific digger theme or content. It allowed easy, informal markup of folksonomy without need of any formal taxonomy or markup language. Hashtags have since been referred to as the "eavesdroppers", "wormholes", "time-machines", and "veins" of the Internet.[5]

How do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?

— Chris Messina's original Tweet proposing hashtag usage, August 23, 2007[4]

Although Twitter's initial response to Messina's proposed use of hashtags was negative, stating that "these things are for nerds"[5] a series of events, including the devastating fire in San Diego County later that year, saw the first widespread use of #sandiegofire to allow users to easily track updates about the fire. The use of hashtags itself then eventually spread on Twitter, and by the end of the decade could be seen in most social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube. Instagram even had to officially place a "30 hashtags" limit on its posts to prevent people from abusing the use of hashtags.[6] Instagrammers eventually circumvented this limit by posting hashtags in the comments section of their posts.[7] As of 2018, more than 85% of the top 50 websites by traffic on the Internet use hashtags.[8]

Messina subsequently went on to become the Developer Experience Lead at Uber from 2016 to 2017[9][10] and as of 2018 ranks as the No. 1 hunter on ProductHunt.com. He is a technology evangelist who is an advocate for open source, open standards, microformats, and OAuth. Messina is also known for his involvement in helping to create the BarCamp, Spread Firefox, and coworking movements.[11]

  1. ^ Parker, Ashley (June 10, 2011). "Twitter's Secret Handshake". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 17, 2011. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  2. ^ "BBC News – Hashtag inventor: It was an 'accidental trip over a simple idea'". BBC. December 5, 2014. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  3. ^ "The Inventor of the Twitter Hashtag Explains Why He Didn't Patent It". Business Insider. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
  4. ^ a b Chris Messina [@chrismessina] (August 23, 2007). "how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?" (Tweet). Retrieved September 30, 2019 – via Twitter.
  5. ^ a b Panko, Ben (August 23, 2017). "A Decade Ago, the Hashtag Reshaped the Internet". Smithsonian. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  6. ^ "How do I use hashtags? | Instagram Help Center". help.instagram.com. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  7. ^ "Instagram Max Hashtags: How to post up to 60". itchban. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  8. ^ "Website Ranking: Top Websites Rank In The World - SimilarWeb". www.similarweb.com. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  9. ^ "Uber denies access to Harvard startup that compared ride-hailing prices". Boston.com. June 5, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  10. ^ (CMU), Carnegie Mellon University. "#OriginStory – Carnegie Mellon University | CMU". www.cmu.edu. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
  11. ^ Fost, Dan (February 21, 2008). "Coworking, a cooperative for the modern age". The International Herald Tribune. iht.com. Retrieved August 23, 2017.