What is a Hashtag, really?

A name (identifier that resolves to a description of its referent) typically used to identify the topic of a post. Typically, this is an HTTP URI that leverages the power of a # (fragment identifier or indexical) as a dual mechanism for:

Unique Entity Denotation
Resolution to Connotation (i.e., Entity Description e.g., a Web Page).

HTTP URI-based Hashtags already deliver powerful naming (identification) functionality to many HTTP-based services e.g., the social-media services provided by the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Medium, and many others.

Fundamentally, a single hyperlink functions as a "Super Key" that offers powerful follow-your-nose navigation and exploration across data hosted by services that offer said functionality.

Simple Example

Using nanotation I can demonstrate the power of hashtags as terms used to create human- and machine-readable sentences:

{

<#HashTag>

a skos:Concept;

owl:sameAs <https://twitter.com/hashtag/HashTag#this>, dbpedia:Hashtag;

schema:name "HashTag";

skos:altLabel "#Tag";

skos:prefLabel "Hash Tag";

schema:image <http://www.sourballpython.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/hashtag-overload.jpg>;

schema:description """An HTTP based sign that generally functions as a topic-identifier across Social Media spaces (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Medium etc..). Fundamentally, this kind of identifier enables one identify anything unambiguously on the World Wide Web [Web] courtesy of the implicit sign->document oriented indirection properties of HTTP fragment identifiers [what the # in an HTTP URI actually is].""";

schema:mainEntityOfPage <#this>, <http://searchengineland.com/future-seo-linked-open-data-lod-175839>.

}

Here’s a screenshot depicting translation of the nanotations from the example above:

Conclusion

The killer tool of the Web is the Hyperlink. It is also the killer tool of a Semantic Web. Naturally, it MUST be the killer tool of all social spaces on the Web too, since there is not better alternative for putting information at our fingertips, from any device connected to the World Wide Web :)

What is a Hashtag, really?

Simple Example

Conclusion

Links