New York Times Coverage of #080808 《纽约时报》上的 #080808 报道

Chinese Tweeters Celebrate Olympics With #080808

By STEVEN SCHWANKERT, IDG News Service\Beijing Bureau, IDG
Published: August 8, 2008

A new online movement less than 24 hours old seeks to spread the Olympic spirit among users of the Twitter micro-blogging site.

Using "#080808" (pronounced "tag 080808"), a symbol for the date of the Olympics opening day, August 8, 2008, is "just for fun, a way to 'write down' the day," said Steven Lin, one of the movement's co-founders, who works for official Olympic Web site Sohu.com as a project manager.

Founded by Lin and two other Internet industry managers, they conceived of the idea on Wednesday, and only began propagating it on Thursday. Lin, who tweets as "flypig," said they chose #080808 for a number of reasons but for one above all others: it was easy to type, including on a cell phone.

Also, despite earlier incarnations such as #BJ08 or #BJNOW, Lin and co-founding tweeters "webleon," also based in Beijing, were shot down by Shanghai-based "babechloe." Chloe, who works in the video department of Web site Hexun, suggested #080808 for those who wanted to celebrate the day but were turned off by references to Beijing.

Regional identities and rivalries are strong in China, and people in one city or province are often reluctant to fully embrace activities, ideas or cuisine specifically associated with another area.

Although the number of #080808 tweeters is not known, a new one is being added about every half-second, as of noon in Beijing local time. Applications are now being written for the movement, including an Adobe Photoshop overlay, allowing users to superimpose the slogan over their Twitter avatars.

Such online movements are now an established phenomenon in China. Chinese Internet users adorned their MSN Messenger icons with (L) China, or "Love China," in a display of solidarity during heavy overseas protests against the Olympic torch relay. This was later replaced with rainbows following the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province.

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中国 Twitter 用户用 #080808 庆祝奥运会

作者：史蒂芬·施万科特 (STEVEN SCHWANKERT) , IDG新闻服务\北京记者站, IDG
日期：2008年8月8日

一个刚刚发起了24小时不到的在线活动正在微博客服务 Twitter 上传播奥林匹克精神。

之所以使用“#080808”(念作“tag 080808”)这个代表了奥运会开幕日2008年8月8日的符号，只是“为了好玩，建立一个‘写下’这一天的途径，”林嘉澍(Steven Lin)说。他是这个活动的联合发起者之一，目前正在奥运官方网站搜狐网(SOHU.COM)从事项目管理方面的工作。

林和另外两个互联网行业的从业人员在周三想出了这个创意，并在周四开始了宣传活动。林在 Twitter 上的昵称是“飞猪”(flypig)，他说他们选择 #080808 有许多原因，其中最重要的一点是：它输入起来很容易，包括在手机上。

而且，林和同在北京的联合发起者“webleon”曾经提议使用 #BJ08 或者 #BJNOW 这样的标签，但是被来自上海的“babechloe”否决了。顾颖(Chloe)在和讯网的视频部门工作，她建议使用 #080808 ，免得那些本想一同庆祝这个日子的人们因为北京元素而选择离开。

区域间的认同和竞争在中国都非常明显，身处某个城市或省份的人们总是不愿意完全接受与另一个区域有显著关联的活动、想法或者地方风味。

虽然没法知道参与 #080808 的具体 Twitter 用户数量，但是在北京当地时间的8月8日中午，每隔半秒钟就会有一条新的消息出现。还有许多关于 #080808 的应用也应运而生，比如一个 Adobe Photoshop 模板，可以让用户在他们的 Twitter 头像上加挂活动口号。

类似的在线活动在中国已经蔚然成风。中国互联网用户曾经在 MSN 昵称里加上 (L)CHINA 的图标(既“红心中国”)，以表现他们在面对海外奥运火炬抗议声浪时的团结一致。不久之后，这个活动又被支持5月12日四川地震的彩虹标志所取代。

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