GLOBAL tech event, Turing Fest, has turned Edinburgh into a tech-travaganza, drawing thousands of attendees and more than 50 speakers from around the world, including a keynote speaker - the inventor of the hashtag.
The hashtag was invented?
We take it for granted now, but it was the brainchild of Chris Messina, who was a headliner at the festival at Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
Who is he?
He describes himself as an “ever-curious product designer and technologist”, who has worked for Google and Uber, but remains famous for suggesting the use of the hashtag back in 2007 in a tweet that remains his pinned tweet today, saying: “How do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?”
It took off straight away?
Not quite. Initial negativity toward it saw social media users say it was surely for “nerds” only, but a fire in San Diego later in 2007 saw the use of #sandiegofire spread to allow users to track updates.
The hashtag spiralled from there and is now a key tool, used across all social media platforms.
Did it make him his fortune?
The 38-year-old, of New Hampshire in the US, did not patent the idea, but has no regrets.
He said: “I had no interest in making money [directly] off hashtags. They are born of the internet and should be owned by no one. The value and satisfaction I derive from seeing my funny little hack used as widely as it is today is valuable enough for me to be relieved that I had the foresight not to try to lock down this stupidly simple but effective idea.”
And what is Turing Fest?
It started in 2011 and has rocketed in size, from a few hundred attendees, to thousands. This year’s festival has been a sell-out, with 3,000 attendees from more than 30 countries, making it Europe’s leading cross-functional tech conference and Scotland’s biggest event of its kind.
It’s named after Alan Turing?
It’s a nod to Turing, the father of modern computing, famed for cracking the Enigma machine at Bletchley Park, whose work was instrumental in shortening the war and leading to the Allied victory over the Nazis.
What’s the event about?
With an array of leading speakers and tech workshops, it aims to bring together “a diverse audience of founders, technologists, executives and investors to share actionable insight and stories about how to start and scale great tech businesses”.
What was Messina’s focus at the festival?
He spoke of his desire to use technology to improve the human experience, saying he noticed after 15 years designing tech products in Silicon Valley that “in our race to make the world more logical and programmable…we’ve reduced the rich tapestry of human experience beyond recognition”.
He told the crowd he believes the solution to today’s ills is not to fix social media or big tech - it's to fix the people who build it.
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