Sun, X., Sarples, S. & Makri, S. (2011, Sept).A user-centred mobile diary study approach to understanding serendipity in information research. Information Research, vol 16(3).
The first publication attempting a definition at serendipity from the team at serenA, in which a model framework for predicting serendipity is presented that integrates three key factors:
- chance
- insight
- value
From what I can tell based on this work, conversations with the serenA team, and our discussions, Kat & I are focussing on the “insight” portion of the serendipity experience with our Serendipity Engine project.
Here’s the article abstract:
Introduction. While serendipity is gaining increasing attention in the context of information research these years, there is a lack of empirical evidence to demonstrate the nature of serendipity in literature.
Method. We conducted a diary study with eleven participations to understand serendipity in information research. A mobile diary application was developed which allows participants to rapidly capture how serendipity happens in their daily life and the context in which they experience serendipity for one week. Their diary entries were discussed during post-study interviews.
Analysis. An Emergent Themes Analysis was conducted to understand our data.
Results. We identified: 1) some key elements to support understanding of serendipity, 2) the influential role of context in serendipitous experiences, 3) a framework of understanding how serendipity happens and 4) the positive impacts of serendipity in people’s information research.
Conclusions. Our research suggests that a framework for classifying serendipity should consider aspects associated with the activity, the value of the information, the source of the information and the interaction between the individual and the context.
A wonderful, empirical close reading of serendipity that is (crucially) user-centred. I would like to see this expanded into a cross-cultural analysis and with a larger sample size, to see how potential locative differences may affect the levels of abstraction that the authors used to define the serendipitous experiences that their participants produced.
Also, this study is focussed on information research - i.e., search and/or discovery. Obviously, this is interesting and important for organisations like Google, Microsoft and any other technological service seeking to keep/attract a customer base by delivering relevance/value of the results.
Lots of excellent reading material and references.
