There was a time where people couldn’t email each other unless they were using the same email client. That changed when developers came up with a protocol that made it so it didn’t matter if you were using AOL, CompuServe or Prodigy — it just work...

In 2007, the hashtag was a simple, yet revolutionary, idea that changed the way we organize and amplify content. Today, it is either endangered or more useful than ever, depending on whom you talk to. On the open social web, hashtags are an important unifying mechanism — not just for content but for people too.

Why is that? How did we get here? What’s next for this small but mighty feature and for the web at large? Here to tell us is Chris Messina, the inventor of the hashtag, the creator of the DiSo Project, and the No. 1 hunter on Product Hunt. In this episode, Messina goes wide to explain where this next 20-year cycle of the internet is taking us. From the community-pulling power of the hashtag to decentralization and the massive shifts ignited by AI, he threads the needle on it all.

Highlights of this conversation:

00:57 “The death of the hashtag” and Elon Musk’s disparaging comments
04:24 Hashtag as an organizing principle, #BelieveinFilm
06:15 Photo sharing and 15th anniversary of hashtag on Instagram
07:02 “Adversarial opportunity” and cross-platform communities
10:25 Early reception of hashtag within Twitter
11:14 Why the hashtag is a big idea
12:22 Hashtag abuse (and dealing with it)
13:36 Under-appreciated aspects of the hashtag
13:58 The first hashtag on Twitter
15:30 Hashtag adoption
18:05 Adding support for the hashtag
19:45 What’s next for the hashtag
22:01 Identity on the (social) web
28:00 Why decentralization is necessary and complex
29:32 Urgency of this moment in time
30:00 What moderation is and does — and how LLMs could assist
33:33 Establishing reputation
37:27 Starter Packs
44:40 Where Chris spends his social media time
46:20 Mastodon, Bluesky pros and cons
54:33 Advice giving to people building in this space

Mentioned in this episode and/or acronyms for clarity:

• bitly.com/tagchannels - original hashtag spec
• DID stands for “decentralized identifier” and is a self-owned, verifiable digital identity that operates without a central authority
• PGP is an encryption standard used for securing communication, data integrity, and authentication

🔎 Learn more about Chris at his website, ChrisMessina.me, or find him on Bluesky @chrismessina.me, Mastodon @chrismessina@mastodon.xyz, and Threads @chris.

✚ You can connect with Mike McCue all across the social web, including on Bluesky @mmccue.bsky.social, Mastodon @mike@flipboard.social and Threads @mmccue.

🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new beta from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/

Welcome to my World.

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Molly White is a leading cryptocurrency critic, but get to know her and you’ll see she’s anything but cynical. In fact, this researcher, writer and software engineer cares so deeply about free and open access to high-quality information that she’s been a Wikipedia editor since she was a teenager.

Now Molly is the force behind the Citation Needed newsletter and the Web3IsGoingGreat site, and frequently speaks to journalists and makes media appearances. Despite tracking and writing about crypto’s shames, she is actually hopeful about how the internet is evolving in ways that are more open, collaborative, and in the user’s control.

In this interview, Molly shares her thoughts on how the social web is transforming our lives, why everyone should be a blogger, and how the concept of digital ownership is changing before our eyes. She also explains the POSSE model — Publish [on your] Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere — which has the potential to revolutionize how we share digital content and think about our online identities.

Highlights of this conversation include:

1:35 Why Molly is optimistic about the future of the web
4:11 What Molly is optimistic about
7:30 Importance of “social” as it relates to the web
11:12 “Everyone is a blogger”
14:45 POSSE — Post on Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere
18:41 ActivityPub
20:01 Wishlist for a better web
22:57 New framework for identity on the web
25:18 Digital ownership
26:20 Digital sovereignty
29:11 Ghost vs Substack
31:15 Enabling creators to build relationships that transcend platforms
33:55 Business models and public funding
39:20 Wikipedia model
41:48 Exciting projects on the horizon for creators; imperativeness of being user friendly
44:20 A formative time of innovation

🔎 You can find everything Molly’s posting via the POSSE implementation on her website at https://www.mollywhite.net/feed. She’s also on Mastodon at @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io.

✚ You can connect with Mike McCue on Mastodon at @mike@flipboard.social or via his Flipboard federated account, where you can see what he’s curating on Flipboard in the Fediverse, at @mike@flipboard.com

💡 To learn more about what Flipboard's doing in the Fediverse, sign up here: http://about.flipboard.com/a-new-wave

💰 Mastodon is a non-profit that runs on donations from the community. You can help Mastodon succeed by supporting the organization via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mastodon