Local Hashtags: A Twitter Proposal

[Loooong post alert. Grab a coffee.]

So, the past week has brought a lot of interesting events and happenings in Kingston. From PAB, to Doors Open, from Teddy Bears to Music Festivals and from fires…. to, well, bigger fires. I’ve been watching it all very closely on Twitter and trying to keep up.  It’s been hard, though, because while big events (like PAB) have dedicated hashtags, smaller going-ons never do. We chatted about this a bit at the last meetup, too, and are beginning to think of a solution, but I’ve been doing some more thinking on my own, too.

First, I pondered the idea of a single, generic tag that could cover all local events. Something like #kingstonon, or #kngon (to keep it short – on Twitter, every character counts) or something like our airport code #ygk… But none of that seemed right – a sweepstakes at the mall and a parade downtown then share the same tag… And until local events begin to have their own tags, that’s going to get very confusing, very quickly. So I thought we could break up the city in a way that would make sense… And the more I thought about this, the more I realized it was already done – by Canada Post!

The Down-Low on Postal Codes

Ahh, the postal codes – something I’ve been developing more of a personal interest in. The postal code system in Canada is set up with 6 characters, three letters and three numbers, formatted as D1E 2F3. The first three characters are the FSA (Forward Station Area) which break down a specific area of a province or city and the last three are the LDU (Local Delivery Unit) pinpoint a specific area within the FSA such as a street, block or sometimes a single building. Because of the way the FSAs work in Kingston – I decided that breaking the city up along those lines made the most sense. If you want to learn more about postal codes, check Wikipedia.

The Hashtags

So I’m proposing we begin tagging news, events, important updates and similar using the FSA as a hashtag. I’ve set up a rough map showing the rough areas according to the Canada Post map. I’m also providing a list of major landmarks within each hashtag zone, along with a specified suggested colour. Click on the read more link below to read all about the new tag zones for Kingston. Part of the beauty of this system is that it can be easily adapted for use anywhere across the country.

I’d appreciate feedback on the hashtags – the idea is to help bring the community together on this, so redefining them together is alright by me. Also, if I missed any notable landmarks, I’d appreciate knowing those, too.

This is a list of the hashtag zones (As defined by the Canadian FSA map), listed with the city-based ones first in clockwise order starting with the one that touches the northern-most point:

#K7P (Colour: Magenta, RGB Hex #CC33CC) - This zone is located in the north-west corner of the city. Bordered by the 401 along the north, down Sydenham Rd and Gardiners Rd along the west, by Princess St (Between Sydenham and Gardiners Rds) and Taylor-Kidd Bvld along the south, and Wilton Rd (County Rd 6) along the east.

Some notable landmarks:

• Woodbine Community Park (And the BMX track)
• Major Retail (Canadian Tire, Wal-mart, Loblaws)
• Invista Centre
• Cataraqui Town Centre

#K7M (Colour: Red, RGB Hex #FF0000) - This zone is mostly the center of Kingston, along with the south-west corner. It’s northern and eastern borders are a little hard to nail down, but along the north we’ve mostly got the 401, Princess St and Taylor-Kidd Bvld, and along the east we’ve essentially got Sydenham Rd, Gardiners Rd, Safari Dr, Aylmer Cr and the railway tracks. It’s bordered (quite cleanly) by Sir John A MacDonald Bvld along the west, and Lake Ontario to the south.

Some notable landmarks:

• Lemoine Point and Little Cataraqui Creek (South) conservation areas
• Major Retail (Rio-Can Centre)
• Invista
• Norman Rogers Airport
• St Lawrence College
• Via Rail
• Richardson Stadium
• Lake Ontario Park
• Queen’s West Campus

#K7K (Colour: Orange, RGB Hex #FFCC00) - This is the largest geographic zone mostly within city limits and comprises the rest of core Kingston (North of Princess St) as well as all of Kingston East. It’s bordered along the north by the 401, by Abbey Dawn Rd to the east, Lake Ontario to the south and Sir John A MacDonald Bvld along the west.

Some notable landmarks:

• Novellis
• Major Retail (Kings Crossing)
• Memorial Centre
• Grass Creek Park
• Royal Military College
• C.F.B. Kingston
• K-ROCK Centre
• Ravensview Plant

#K7L (Colour: Blue, RGB Hex #0000FF) - The last (and smallest geographically) zone within the actualy city. This is mostly the downtown core and Queen’s Campus. Bordered along the north by Princess St, along the east and south by Lake Ontario and by Sir John A MacDonald Bvld along the west.

Some notable landmarks:

• Downtown Kingston (Including EVERYTHING on Princess St and South)
• City Hall, Market Square and Confedration Basin
• City Park
• ALL THREE hospitals
• Queen’s University
• Major Retail (Downtown shops, Kingston Centre)

#K7N (Colour: Green, RGB Hex #009900) - While much of this zone isn’t residential, and some does fall outside of city limits, it will be included on here for expansion possibility as well as events in Amherstview. Bordered on the north by Woodbine Rd (until it’s end, where a straight line runs to the west border), on the east by the Safari Dr/Aylmer Cr/Railway tracks border of #K7M, along the south by the lake and along the west by Wilton Rd (County Rd 6).

Some notable landmarks:

• Amherstview

While these 5 hashtags will cover much of what goes on in this area, some events will reach outside this section. I’ve got those covered too.

The rural areas surrounding Kingston (Including Wolfe, Howe and Amherst islands), Bath, Picton, Sandbanks Park, Odessa, Sydenham, Tichborne, Sharbot Lake, Westport, Seeley’s Bay, Verona, Joyceville and others will be handled by their FAS of #K0H (Colour: Teal, RGB Hex #66CCCC). Note that this is a LARGE zone, and is not mapped off directly on the map by borders.

In the interest of getting more people in the area involved, I’ve also set up zones for the two nearby twons with dedicated FSAs:

• Napanee to the west can be identified as #K7R (Colour: Grey, RGB Hex #999999). This would include things like the Strathcona Paper Centre.
• Gananoque on the east can be identified as #K7G (Colour: Brown, RGB Hex #663300). This encompasses the Playhouse as well as the casino.

Note that the zones for Napanee and Gananoque are JUST for things within the town and not the outlying rural areas – the oultying areas fall under #K0H.

I really hope these help us all to be able to find out more about what’s going on in the area. Please try to keep them in mind when live-tweeting major happenings, events and news. Remember too, that tags can be on anything, from a tweet, to a blog post to an image upload to a video. I’ll be building a tools soon that will aggregate tweets using these new tags. All feedback to tweak and change these is MORE than welcome. Please comment below.