What is a Hashtag, really?

A name (identifier that resolves to a description of its referent) 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:

[1] Unique Denotation

[2] Resolution to Connotation .

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

What follows is a simple nanotation example that showcases 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.

Structured Data Generated from Nanotations while editing this post

Links

1. OpenLink Structured Data Sniffer Browser Extension
2. URIBurner Service — Nanotation Processing Service
3. About Indexicals
4. Linked Data and Hashtags — explained in a single slide
5. 5-Star Linked Data Deployment using Relative Hyperlinks
6. About Nanotation