Chris Messina is widely credited with inventing the hashtag back during what he calls the “the social web era.” (Did you know that was over?) Now the former Google exec — whose 2007 suggestion of the hashtag as a topic organizer is below — joins Uber as its Developer Experience Lead.
Messina will work with an Uber that is in the midst of transforming from a ride-share, ride-hailing platform to an “everything” platform. Essentially Messina sees the new Uber as a new front door for the Internet of Things. Messina cites Mark Zuckerberg as his model, both for what the Facebook founder has already done and for what he proposes to do. Messina says “like Facebook did for people, Uber will build the foundational platform that will enable people to manipulate and control the world around them.” (A snarky reading, of course, says you can manipulate and control people with Facebook, but that’s not what Messina meant!) Uber and Facebook will collide too, in efforts to be the platform for this interaction. Messina himself quotes Zuckerberg’s 2016 goal to build a “simple AI to run my home and help me with my work.” Now they’re both trying to do it.
how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?
— ❄︎ Chris Messina ❄︎ (@chrismessina) August 23, 2007
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