Hashtags as a Global Language
Over the past few weeks, I've stepped up efforts to connect with Gov 2.0 types outside of the U.S. Looking at the Twitter community in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, helped in this, as did tweets in Japanese about Gov 2.0 Camp LA. Monday, I learned about a mature and vibrant Gov 2.0-oriented community in the Netherlands, and event got a little lesson in Dutch.
Now, I'd already connected through the U.S.-based GovLoop with like minds in the U.K, Australia, and New Zealand, but as Twitter grows internationally, I'm struck by the universal nature of hashtags. Not just a fun semantic tool or event aggregator, issue tags easily cross language barriers that are more limiting on static sites. See, I had no idea that ambtenaar + civil servant, but when I see #gov20 pop up in tweets I can't read, it's plenty easy to run that message through an online translator. Connection established.
Now please excuse me, I'm off to read Ambtenaar20.nl.
Now, I'd already connected through the U.S.-based GovLoop with like minds in the U.K, Australia, and New Zealand, but as Twitter grows internationally, I'm struck by the universal nature of hashtags. Not just a fun semantic tool or event aggregator, issue tags easily cross language barriers that are more limiting on static sites. See, I had no idea that ambtenaar + civil servant, but when I see #gov20 pop up in tweets I can't read, it's plenty easy to run that message through an online translator. Connection established.
Now please excuse me, I'm off to read Ambtenaar20.nl.
~ Adriel Hampton is a San Francisco public servant and host of the Gov 2.0 Radio podcast. Follow him on Twitter @adrielhampton.
I think you are very right though - especially when one looks at places like China - I've been interested to note that most .cn addresses are numbers (not characters), China embraces DC Metadata etc - hashtags are simply another expression of information (like URL's and metadata) that is truely international, even though most of the time it's in English. I'm wondering how long before a foreign language hashtag comes into popular common use as the best way to describe something, like words such as Zeitgeist or Karma have...